AHRP Comments on Smallpox Vaccine Testing on Children 2 to 5 Years of Age

Recent public and professional debate about smallpox vaccine and its risks provides the framework for evaluating the ethical justification for conducting clinical trials on children. Dryvax is a particularly impure product made of live vaccinia virus harvested from the pustules of calves infected with (it is believed) cowpox. Although the vaccine, which is scratched on the skin, only causes mild infections in most people, in a small but significant number the infection caused serious adverse reactions similar to the complications of the disease they were designed to prevent: painful, disfiguring skin disorders, blindness, neurological impairments and death.

Editorial: Trial Lawyers and Clinical Trials_WSJ

October 11, 2002 Editorial: Trial Lawyers and Clinical Trials_WSJ Daniel Hennenger, the editor of the Wall Street Journal would give doctors free reign to experiment on human subjects unencumbered by ethical or regulatory considerations: just let every self-proclaimed ” genius who somewhere is dreaming of the next L-dopa, lithium or…

Dissenting Opinion – Proposed Children’s Workgroup Reinterpretation of Fed Regs 45 CFR 46 sects. 404 & 406

Dissenting Opinion (NHRPAC Children Workgroup) re: Proposed Reinterpretation of Fed. Regs Protecting Children (45 CFR 46, sections 404 and 406) May 14, 2002 To: Alan Fleischman, MD, Chair, Children’s Workgroup of NARPAC        Mary Faith Marshall, Ph.D., Chair, NARPAC From: Vera Hassner Sharav Re: Dissenting Opinion re: Report to NHRPAC, proposing…

InfoMail for May 13, 2002

  AHRP InfoMail Return to Home Page Return to InfoMail Media Coverage List MediaCoverage News Stories on Human ResearchProtection andCommentary by Vera Hassner Sharav May 13, 2002 Experimentationon Newborns: Is it Ethical? FYI The Wall Street Journal reported: "Oneoutrage now before a court has stunned even bioethicists who thought they’d seenit…

Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Trials

Presented by Vera Hassner Sharav
14th Tri-Service Clinical Investigation Symposium
Sponsored by The U.S. Army Medical Department and The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancment of Military Medicine

The cornerstone of public trust in medical research is the integrity of academic institutions and the expectation that universities, which rely on public funding, have a responsibility to serve the public good. Financial conflicts of interest affect millions of American people – those who are subjects of clinical trials testing new drugs and those who are prescribed drugs after their approval.

Sharav Presentation before US Army Medical Dept., May 6, 2002

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Presented by Vera Hassner Sharav 14th TRI-SERVICE CLINICAL INVESTIGATION SYMPOSIUM Sponsored By THE U.S. ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT And THE HENRY M. JACKSON FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCMENT OF MILITARY MEDICINE May 5-7, 2002 The cornerstone of public trust in medical research is the integrity of academic institutions and…

Protecting Human Subjects in Research: Are Current Safeguards Adequate?

Current federal regulations set no limits on the level of risk that a competent adult may voluntarily choose to undertake for the sake of science. The regulations require prior approval by a review board (IRB) to ensure the research meets scientific and ethical justification, to ensure that the risks and benefits (if any) are fully disclosed to the subject, and that the subject can exercise the right to give or withhold informed consent.