Trading on Trials
A new-to-me issue in bioethics, via the IP-health listerv: that patients involved in ongoing clinical trials may be using their experiences with a drug to guide their stockmarket decisions.
Evidence was anecdotal but sufficient for concern. Should patients in trials use their personal knowledge of a drug’s success or failure to guide their own stock choices? Do patients chatting in online cancer forums unintentionally release information that can affect stock prices?
One of the most disturbing possibilities is also the least likely—a patient falsifying trial results to drive up a company’s stock, Dr. Ratain says. Patients who purchase stock from the drug’s manufacturer may withhold information about side effects.
