Leading GP bodies have given their support to new guidance on how patients’ medical records should be used in medical research. The guidance, published this week by the medical charity the Wellcome Trust, aims to make it clearer to GPs and researchers how they can ensure that medical records are used safely in research. The report says that patients’ records in general practice are a unique source of information that can help medical researchers improve their understanding of disease, develop potential new treatments, and improve care.
Thousands of patients are suing AstraZeneca in US courts, claiming the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel caused weight gain and diabetes. The patients allege Seroquel, its second biggest selling drug worth $4.5bn (£2.7bn) a year, was marketed without adequate warning about possible side effects such as massive weight gain and the development of diabetes. However, this is denied by the company.
At least 83 Guatemalans are thought to have died after being deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea in the 1940s, a presidential commission in the United States has heard. US government scientists infected hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, psychiatric patients and orphans to study the effects of penicillin. None of those infected consented. The head of the commission, Amy Gutmann, called the research a "shameful piece of medical history". The Presidential Commission for the study of Bioethical Issues is due to publish its report in September. President Obama set up the commission when the research came to light last year.
Tony, 47, and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 42, of Chandlers Quay, Maldon, who were Britain's first gay surrogate parents, denied one charge of providing false information to an ethics panel. The pair, who ran Euroderm Research, also deny two counts of not conforming to protocol when conducting a trial. The pair appeared before Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday. They also deny two charges of conducting a clinical trial otherwise than in accordance of good clinical practice.
In the second part of a special report, Nina Lakhani exposes how survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster became unwitting guinea pigs in studies funded by Western drug companies. Secret reports seen by The Independent reveal that drug trials funded by western pharmaceutical firms at the Indian hospital set up for survivors of the Bhopal disaster violated international ethical standards and could have put patients at risk.