Shar Porier, from the Bisbee Daily Review/Sierra Vista Herald did a nice piece on the book: Local diabetic writes about his clinical trials Type 1 patient enjoyed brief ‘cure’ a while ago By Shar Porier Herald/Review BISBEE — “The year I was cured, I knew how normal people felt.” Alex O’Meara reflected on his 30-odd [...]

Enjoy this bracing tour through “the history, horror, and headaches” of clinical trials, described by a guide with both a detached delivery and knowledgeable perspective… His investigation briskly sails through the interests that spark clinical trials, the money that pays for them and the “bonanza of cash and/or equipment and medications” for developing countries where researchers find it cheaper to recruit trial subjects… O’Meara presents lessons from a medical front that offers something more important than success or failure—hope. “I’m still able to say, ’At least I tried.’” O’Meara notes.

Readers who assume that the trials only occur at academic medical centers will be surprised by the author’s findings. As they multiply and grow wildly expensive—up to $500 million for a single drug—pharmaceutical companies are hiring clinical-research organizations, profit-making enterprises that recruit subjects, pay them and perform studies in their own facilities.