Monday, December 05, 2005

Rogue Researcher: Is it ethical to charge patients money to participate in research?

Last year, the dermatologist from Menlo Park made headlines with his clinical study about his super-duper lotion, ``Nuvo,'' that one slathers on and then dries to kill the little buggers by suffocation.

Now, in a letter to be published today in the journal Pediatrics, he admits his special goo was an over-the-counter skin cleanser available at just about every drugstore in the nation for under 10 bucks.

His price for his clinical trials? More than $200.

Why do you have to charge $200 to enroll someone in a clinical trial? Wouldn't charging them for an office visit to check on the treatment's progress make more sense? (Though it would be less profitable.) And what about people treated with placebo?

In this case, the doctor says he had three reasons for doing his research:

``No. 1, I like a challenge. No. 2, if I make a better louse trap -- ha ha -- I could make some money. And No. 3, I'm Jewish. And there's a principle in the religion that there's an obligation to improve the world.

``I said I'm going for it. Two out of three ain't bad.''

That still doesn't explain why he charged his subjects $200 for the privilege of being in his study. Maybe he did get 3 out of 3 after all.

The product he used was Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, which apparently suffocated the lice if allowed to dry on the hair before washing. It certainly didn't cost $200 to provide the soap to the families.

I'm not a subscriber to Pediatrics, so I can't get the full text of the letter, but the first 20% of it is available here.