Kallima wrote:I imagine motives for volunteering to help test drugs vary. Some may do it for the money, some because it may help their own medical condition, some because someone they care about may in future be helped by the drug, and some in the naive belief they should try and help others. Any one, or a combination of these and other motives could apply.
tbh I think the motivation is almost always financial. I did some testing just over 10yrs ago as a student; the vast majority testers were either the long-term unemployed or students, people who can use the money and spare the time to stay in a ward under observation (normally anything from a few days to a month depending on the study).
Lot of peeps I saw in there were 'career testers' - they'd go on as many studies as they could get on (limited by the amout of blood taken and iirc a hard cap no. of studies per year). Volunteers required are almost always healthy white males within a certain weight and age limit (students therefore perfect, the clinic that did the studies I went on in Leeds was right opposite the campus).
Hope the latest incident pushes up the going rate, from what I can see it's hardly gone up in the last 10yrs and, well, the clinics know plenty of peeps need the cash and they don't have to offer much. Was around £400 for a 3 or 4 day study, and £2000 for 3-4 week one back then.
Mael, 50th ment.
