Drug trials in the developing world

Pfizer to pay �50m after deaths of Nigerian children in drug trial experiment - Africa, World - The Independent

I have to sadly admit I didn't realise the Constant Gardner was based on a true story.

I once took a look at global clinical trials, and a majority of big pharma clinical trials done in the developing world is for infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease or oncology (this is all public access information from clinicaltrials.gov). Many of them use contract research organisations to conduct their clinical trials. This industry is very sophisticated now (the outsourcing of clinical trials) so hopefully this sort of blatant disrespect of human life and the scientific process won't happen again, but unfortunately, I suspect it will without proper oversight (formal or informal).