Of the moment …..

..as I’ve reached the end as a healthy volunteer participant for a clinical trial of a vaccine for Norovirus, it’s freed me up for other trials. So I’ve signed up to trial a vaccine to prevent any bird flu pandemic. Think this is my fifth clinical trial.

I suppose you are helping guinea pigs and other animals from being used in laboratories and someone has to do it but why not people serving life in prison for murder or othen crimes, make them payback to society and maybe save a few lives.

Medical experiments on prisoners sounds like the first step on the slippery slope to some of the atrocities committed in war time. Very bad for PR, at least.

Spectric said:

I suppose you are helping guinea pigs and other animals from being used in laboratories......

Click to expand...

No. Human trials only happen after trials in vitro and in lab animals.

Spectric said:

I suppose you are helping guinea pigs and other animals from being used in laboratories and someone has to do it but why not people serving life in prison for murder or othen crimes, make them payback to society and maybe save a few lives.

Click to expand...

Which clearly shows your very limited understanding of clinical trials.

Do the people running the drug trial require a period in which you have no trials before you can start the next one? Or is it just a matter of letting them know which trials you were on?

Windows said:

Do the people running the drug trial require a period in which you have no trials before you can start the next one? Or is it just a matter of letting them know which trials you were on?

Click to expand...

Both

Spectric said:

I suppose you are helping guinea pigs and other animals from being used in laboratories and someone has to do it but why not people serving life in prison for murder or othen crimes, make them payback to society and maybe save a few lives.

Click to expand...

Just hope they've not been wrongly convicted .......

Ah, I was rejected for the trial as it wasn't 90 days since the end of the last one. Bit silly really as the trial vaccine or placebo was two years ago. The lead nurse of the trial just finished thought it was a bit weird of them as well but they make the rules.

As it happens, there's a much better trial that they're doing...a vaccine for C Diff which, let's face it, I have a darn sight more chance of catching than bird flu. Of course I might get the placebo.

I'm curious, Roger, about the protocols and precautions around the tests these days. I recall a few years ago when 4 or 5 volunteers had life-changing reactions to whatever they were trialling, and I assume that there are more precautions these days.

As someone who detests drugs and takes only what I really can't get out of the thought of being a guinea pig horrifies me. You're certainly far braver than I am Roger,.

Mike G said:

I'm curious, Roger, about the protocols and precautions around the tests these days. I recall a few years ago when 4 or 5 volunteers had life-changing reactions to whatever they were trialling, and I assume that there are more precautions these days.

Click to expand...

Indeed. There are three stages. The first stage is where the drug or vaccine is tested on humans for the first time. A small cohort of people...maybe 20-80 ...and it was at this stage that the event you're referring to happened in 2006. The company involved was Parexel.


Since then safety and protocols have been really tightened up and a more detailed discussion of clinical trials can be found here.


I only take part in Stage 3 trials where possible side-effects are pretty much nailed down and known. If you'd like I can send you the protocol paper for the trial I was on.

This Norovirus vaccine trial hasn't generated the results that they were hoping for simply because during the two year period that the trial ran, there were not that many outbreaks of Norovirus and so the statistics required to properly evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine weren't enough. So they have been recruiting another and much larger cohort and given the number of recent norovirus outbreaks they are starting to get the results that they need to evaluate the vaccine.

Lons said:

As someone who detests drugs and takes only what I really can't get out of the thought of being a guinea pig horrifies me. You're certainly far braver than I am Roger,.

Click to expand...

The brave people are the ones on Stage 1. I did think about doing one a few years back as funds were getting tight and this one offered £3000 for two weeks. Participants checked in to the research centre complete with ward(s), a community restroom, a board game's room etc as the study was 24/7 with nursing and medical staff round the clock. I asked for more information but the protocols and rules were, for me, a bit restrictive. Like having to wear pyjamas! I've tried that and can never get to sleep. That plus being shut up with possibly even more boring people than me! And you'd know that there would be at least one who was the equivalent of the pub bore and spoke very, very loudly. All the time.

So I never applied.