'The Constant Gardener': What the Movie Missed By Sonia Shah

[Hannah Bell]

...The plot couldn't be more timely. According to a May 16 report in USA Today, giant drug outfits are outsourcing increasing numbers of drug trials outside the United States and Europe. Merck is now conducting 50 percent of its trials outside the United States. By 2006, 70 percent of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals trials are expected to occur offshore. Across Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, the sick are abundant, desperate and doc-trusting, and so recruitment into clinical trials is rapid. As one executive from an outfit specializing in running drug trials in Asia put it, patients in developing countries are "more willing to be guinea pigs."

...Not surprisingly, ethical lapses are strikingly common. In one inquiry, out of thirty-three subjects enrolled in an experiment trial in Thailand, all of whom had signed forms stating their informed consent, thirty were found to be dangerously misinformed. The experimental HIV vaccine they were about to receive had no known protective value, but, according to the subjects, it would, in fact, protect them from the deadly virus. "Informed consent is a joke," said one industry researcher in an anonymous survey sponsored by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission.

...To paraphrase the rousing finale of The Constant Gardener, we enjoy the benefits of civilization so affordably because their lives are bought so cheaply. To end the cycle, we must own up to the risks of developing new drugs, and decide together how much we are willing to take on and who shall pay the price.

[Terranist]

1. It's a fantastic movie

I read the book afterwards and found it a rare case where the movie is better. However, I read much more of Le Carre's writing afterwards and he's a wonderful writer.