Customer Reviews

The Body Hunters: Testings New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients

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In a remarkably bold 'report', the lurking dangers of recent trends in clinical trials through contract research organizations is well presented. Without adopting an obvious higher moral ground nor using a broad brush to paint all of Big Pharma as pure evil (as some recent books on Big Pharma have done), the author focuses purely on the issue of clinical trials. Using recent examples from various companies (all familiar names to the average reader), the author poses interesting ethical questions regarding the "use" of patients in developing countries. In a series of interesting observations, the author explains why it is more "economical" and "practical" for drug companies to perform the FDA-required trials using measures such as "events" (number o f deaths during a particular number of days, or n'th death). While the bulk of the book is devoted to examples ranging from India, Latin America, and Africa to discuss the modalities of clinical trials and raise pertinent questions, the conclusion of the book is not very substantial. However, the author does point out that drugs should be seen as "social goods" and not mere new products; thus the means of developing them should be fair. Point well-made. A must read for anyone in the medical/pharmaceutical industry, investor, or a patient who uses any medicine.

The development branch of the multi-national pharmaceutical industry has begun to expert its clinical research to the developing world, where ethical oversight is minimal and desperate patients abound - there to conduct research forbidden in the U.S. That's the hard-hitting message of a title based on several years of original research and reporting from Asia and Africa, making THE BODY HUNTERS: TESTING NEW DRUGS ON THE WORLD'S POOREST PATIENTS an eye-opening expose and 'must have' acquisition.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

My review here is brief due to time limitation, not to lack of very positive things to say of Sonia Shah's The Body Hunters. The book, very well-researched and argued, quite convincingly questions the pharmaceutical industry, the federal government and even the role of consumers in promoting drugs that turn a quick buck while drugs desperately needed to treat life-threatening illnesses in human populations suffering in terrifying numbers are not available. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in knowing more about equity in health-care.

The Body Hunters by Sonia Shah is a fascinating look at modern drug trials. The FDA prefers drugs to be tested against placebos to show effectiveness. Americans and Western Europeans don't want to risk taking placebos. What to do, what to do? Pharmaceutical companies, instead of offering (usually more expensive) alternatives to the FDA, cheerfully administer placebos to mothers with AIDS and children with diptheria. Big Pharma argues, "Hey, these people are impoverished and wouldn't be getting anything at all if normally, what's the big deal? At least half of them are getting the drugs!" Read the book to read Shah's persuasive argument as to "what's the big deal." Not just an angry voice, she offers real, practical solutions to the problem.

I also enjoyed that the book provides a brief history of experimentation on human subjects. Hits on Tuskeegee, experimentation in Nazi concentration camps, and a few other infamous examples. Gives a rundown of the explosion of "lifestyle" drugs like Viagra and Prozac. (Did you know impotence and depression were hardly ever diagnosed prior to the introduction of these drugs? Are current levels of impotence and depression accurate???)

My only quibble is that Shah's writing is not the best. She is in desperate need of a thesaurus. People in the book tend to be "aghast" and "outraged."

This book is timely and important. Just yesterday I read in my local paper an article on a new STD drug found to slow the onset of AIDS. I read with baited breath...sure enough, the trial was conducted in Burkina Faso, and half the subjects were given placebos. The subjects were improverished women with HIV.

After reading The Fever and being totally impressed by Sonia Shah's brillian writing skills, I looked forward to reading one of her earlier books on a topic no less serious. The Body Hunters is not an easy read as one witnesses the unsavory machinations of big pharma and the victimization of poor, uneducated test subjects. Her book is enlightening while arousing outrage and discomfort in the reader.

For me Body Hunters, though certainly worthwhile and thought provoking, is not as compelling as the later work about malaria,The Fever. The segments in Body Hunters about the designs of studies and the strategies of the pharmaceutical companies could be a little tedious at times.

At book's end I still came away with an admiration of the author for her wriing and investigative skills and her caring as a human being.

Normally not a fast reader, I read the book in an afternoon and evening. I had to finish it while I had the chance. Prior to reading it, I was sympathetic to drug testing, or what I knew of it. By marking out the line of reasoning that sacrifices human dignity for short term profit, Shah ably convinced me to think more critically about clinical trials and the justification behind them. Her writing is lucid, exciting, and carefully proscriptive. I would highly recommend it for anyone who has to make choices in healthcare.