Free Money! Ask Me How! (Clinincal Trials)

[HydrogenPeroxide]

If someone posts about easy money again tell them to go eat cancer pills.

 

Interesting article that I just came across about clinical trials for pharmaceuticals

 

 

 

Drug Test Cowboys: The Secret World of Pharmaceutical Trial Subjects

 

 

 

A full-time medical test subject, Nick F. has earned $80,000 participating in some two dozen studies.

 

 

 

Every year, millions of volunteers participate in clinical trials in return for quick cash. A few turn pro. Welcome to the guinea pig underground.

 

Nick F. was driving a delivery truck in Milwaukee when his life hit a rough patch. He was living in a converted barn and putting every spare penny into paying off a $12,000 debt he had accrued in college. The future looked bleak. So, for a change of scenery, he moved to Richmond, Virginia, where an acquaintance told him there was money to be made as a test subject in medical studies. Feeling desperate, he applied to join a drug trial in Baltimore. The promise: $6,500 for four 12-day stints of blood draws, echo cardiograms, and physical checkups.

 

That was three years ago. Since then, Nick, 36, has become a full-time guinea pig. He has participated in some two dozen studies, shuttling between test labs in Baltimore; Boston; Fargo, North Dakota; and Trenton, New Jersey. He has earned a total of $80,000 swigging chemically enhanced sport shakes, popping pills laced with radioactive carbon 14, submitting to 36 blood draws over a four-day stretch, and pooping in a box.

 

"I used to practically faint at the sight of a needle," he says. "Now I give the phlebotomist pointers like, 'My veins roll, so make sure you hold them still.'"

 

Nick is part of a growing subculture of human lab rats. Each year, US scientists require a total of at least 10 million healthy test subjects, says Adil Shamoo, chair of Circare, a human research watchdog organization. Depending on duration, rigor, and risk, medical studies can pay as much as $10,000 each.

 

The work isn't demanding, but it can be dangerous. In March 2006, eight male volunteers checked into London's Northwick Park Hospital for a weeklong study of TGN1412, an experimental treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and leukemia to be manufactured by Boehringer- Ingelheim. Within minutes of receiving the first dose, six of them began to writhe in pain, vomit, and lose consciousness, according to news reports. Nurses rushed them to the hospital's trauma unit, where doctors treated them for multiple organ failure. The test subjects lived, but all suffered permanent damage to their immune systems and internal organs. One lost fingers and toes. Another developed signs of cancer possibly triggered by the drug.

 

Given the risks, most test subjects go in for a one-time score to pay off a debt or finance a vacation. Some stay on the testing circuit for a few months after college or between jobs, until they find a career path. For a few, though, clinical trials are a career path. These individuals endure uncomfortable side effects, lackluster food, and endless poking and prodding in return for a flexible work schedule and minimal responsibility. With diligence, luck, and a willingness to fudge their age and other details to match researchers' requirements, professional guinea pigs can earn $50,000 a year or more.

 

Nick requested anonymity because researchers are wary of serial test subjects — compounds from past experiments lingering in the blood could compromise their results. "To really make a living at this, you need four things," he says. "A laptop with a Net connection to find studies, a cell phone to call other clinics while you're doing a study, a credit card to book the travel, and an ATM card with a major national bank to deposit your money as soon as you get out." During a particularly busy four-day stretch in 2004, Nick covered more than 2,000 miles, going from Milwaukee to Trenton to apply for a trial at Bristol- Meyers Squibb, to Waukegan, Illinois, for another screening at Abbott Labs, and then, having passed the test at Bristol-Meyers, back to Trenton for more lab work.

 

Guys like Nick — smart, organized, restless — are typical of a new wave of guinea pigs. "Back in the day, the world of the lab rat was grifters, losers, and hustlers," Nick says. "But even in the three years since I started, it has become more socially acceptable. We're in a culture that's a little more devil-may-care, a little foolhardy." And, hey, if you can't make a living behind the wheel, why not try your luck at the other end of an IV?

Ex-union organizer Robert Helms created the zine Guinea Pig Zero and incited fellow lab rats to demand more compensation during a Merck drug trial.

Photograph by Michael Lewis

 

Eager to experience the guinea pig life firsthand, I decide to enroll in a study near my home in San Francisco. I start by searching GPGP.net, a site that lists upcoming studies in the US, Canada, and Europe. (The name stands for Guinea Pigs Get Paid.) Then I stop by BioTrax for online information about the screening process. I learn that signing the required consent form could mean I have to sue to collect additional compensation should something go horribly wrong. However, it wouldn't obligate me to complete a study. I could forgo part of the fee and withdraw at any time.

 

I'm thrilled to come across a notice on craigslist looking for subjects to demonstrate the impact of the club drug GHB on driving ability; I imagine myself going to raves and then speeding home, a clinician riding shotgun. But the trial is over subscribed. So I settle for a study observing the effects of Stone Age nutrition — the so-called Paleolithic diet — on modern-day Americans of average physical condition. The pay is commensurate with the risk: $200 plus free food for three weeks.

 

Not long afterward, I find myself marching on a steeply inclined treadmill at the UC San Francisco hospital. A blood- tapping device called a heparin lock protrudes from a vein in my arm, and electrodes are attached to 10 freshly shaved spots on my chest. I huff and puff into a gas mask-like apparatus. Four tubes extend from the mouthpiece, one of which pumps a mixture of acetylene, helium, oxygen, and nitrogen into my lungs. Every two minutes, the study's head researcher drains a few drops of my blood.

 

After 15 minutes, I'm drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. The exercise physiologist takes a reading. She turns to me with a smile and declares: "Good news! You're unfit enough to be in this study!"

 

Few test subjects have as much experience as Scott, who, like Nick, requested anonymity to protect his earning power. A 10-year veteran, he has participated in more than 60 studies. Among the highlights: testing a cream designed to numb the penis and spending a week gloriously high on morphine pills. When he's not crisscrossing the country in pursuit of a paycheck, he lives near Miami in a two-bedroom, two- bathroom home. In his spare time — and he has a lot of it — he works on his four-car fleet: a Buick Electra, a Pontiac Fiero GT, a Honda Civic, and the crown jewel, a Lambor ghini Countache (sans engine). He enjoys scuba diving in the Florida Keys and makes sure his schedule is clear during the nation's biggest parties: Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Fantasy Fest in Key West, and occasionally Burning Man in Nevada.

 

Scott is philosophical about the risk of a TGN1412-style disaster. "I've worked in construction and hit my thumb with a framing hammer," he says. "I've worked as an electrician and seen guys get electrocuted. Being a lab rat is the only work situation where you've got around-the-clock medical attention. It's the safest job I've ever been in."

 

Finding the next gig is a constant priority. Scott brings his laptop to work and, taking care not to tangle its power cord with the IV tubes dripping experimental meds into his bloodstream, he spends his inpatient hours scouring the Web for trial notices, air fares, and car rentals. He checks out opportunities suggested by fellow test subjects and research recruiters he has gotten to know over the years. He tries to stay away from tests involving radioactive tracers, extensive x-rays, catheters, or tubes in his airways — unless the price is right. When he finds a study worth traveling for, he secures a pre- and post-trial place to stay through the bedroom co-op CouchSurfing.com, a popular site for lining up free lodging.

 

Scott, 47, won't reveal his income, but a lab-rat colleague estimates he pulls down $30,000 to $40,000 annually. That's little better than a Starbucks barista, but doctor visits are thrown in and the vacation policy is quite liberal. One of his biggest single scores: $9,000 for a three-week study of an asthma medication. He earned every penny. "I had a tube going up my nose, down my throat, and into my lung," he says. "It's hard to have a tube in your lung for 24 hours a day."

 

Scott prepares for screening sessions, where researchers determine his fitness for a particular study, the way an athlete gets ready for a big game. In the week leading up to the event, he abstains from alcohol, drugs, and poppy seed bagels (the seeds show up as an opiate in blood tests), as well as salt and saturated fats. He cuts calories until his weight falls to within 10 percent of ideal, but he doesn't exercise — that leaves enzymes in the blood that could disqualify him. And while researchers typically require subjects to wait 30, 60, or 90 days between studies, Scott makes it a point to find out how fast the substance being tested breaks down so he can calculate exactly when his blood will be clean enough for his next engagement.

 

Until then, though, it's off to California's Lake Tahoe for a few days on the ski slopes.

 

 

 

 

 

the rest of the article is here:

 

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_drugtest.html

[AGOE1]

you think im really gonna read that shit?

[DRUNKEN-ASSHOLE-ONER]

You do realize that that's some ginny pig shit to find out what the side efects are right?

Niggas walk out that shit with permanently damaged livers and permanently disabled dicks you know.

 

Are you really willing to chance permanently disableing your dick for a G-stack?

[*PROTOCOL*]

you think im really gonna read that shit?

 

Channel zero friendly recap.

 

 

 

 

be a

 

for

 

get

 

maybe get

[DRUNKEN-ASSHOLE-ONER]

:lol:

[Milk Grenades]

there's no more snow in lake tahoe.

[BruceLeroy]

good one