Drug Trial Disaster

[funnylegs4]

French drug trial volunteer dies - hospital

Reuters - Reuters - Sunday, January 17, 2016
A man left brain dead after a drug trial in northwest France died on Sunday, said the hospital where he was being treated.


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Link doesn't appear to be working properly but I'm so sorry to hear he died. May his brave soul rest in peace, poor man. This is utterly heartbreaking. I can only imagine what the family is going through! Glad I could help you learn something about PVS. I heard a lot about it when that Terri Schavio (not sure if that is the correct spelling of her name) case was all over the news and there was a ton of discussion about Brain Death vs PVS vs locked in syndrome etc.

[SalpalSally]

This is so sad.

Indeed it is. I just can't believe it

[Howie]

Funnylegs4, I just checked, and it didn't work for me either. But the main news was he did die.

[agate]

Here's the story from a different source:

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Some of the other patients aren't doing well either:

Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the neurology department at the Rennes hospital where the men are being treated, said on Friday that as well as the man who has since died, three were suffering a “handicap that could be irreversible” and a fourth had neurological problems.

[Howie]

Thanks Agate. The story gets sadder the more you read about it. This brave soul was in his 20's. Lets hope the others improve.

I wonder, didn't they test it on rats, then monkeys, before it was given to humans? If not, why not? It sounds like it was given the fast track without testing it on animals before it was tested on humans.

[agate]

I believe I read that they'd tested it on our friends the mice.

[Howie]

Poor little guys, all they really wanted was cheese!

[SuzE-Q]

Howie, the above Guardian article indicates it was tested on chimps first.

It was those on the highest dose who fell ill.

This would have been one situation where you'd be relieved to have been on the placebo...

[agate]

I'm sorry--I should have said that it was tested on chimps, not mice. I don't know why I want to drag mice in so often.

[Parsi]

Thanks Agate. The story gets sadder the more you read about it. This brave soul was in his 20's. Lets hope the others improve.

I wonder, didn't they test it on rats, then monkeys, before it was given to humans? If not, why not? It sounds like it was given the fast track without testing it on animals before it was tested on humans.

I wondered the same thing. I know reactions aren't necessarily the same, but usually close enough to catch serious problems, or so I thought.

[Parsi]

I heard on the news last night that the others were stable. This morning I heard they might also be brain damaged.

[funnylegs4]

I wondered the same thing. I know reactions aren't necessarily the same, but usually close enough to catch serious problems, or so I thought.

Aside from the issue of animal abuse, the problem with animal trials is that you are still dealing with a different species that has a different metabolism and can't communicate its symptoms to you the way a human does. Animals often hide the fact that they feel ill so they are not eaten by predators. This would be particularly true in wild animals like chimps so unfortunately the scientists were probably doing a certain amount of guess work and heartbreakingly guessed wrong in this situation. I would imagine an animal trial on a drug that effects the brain would be even harder because even in other animals the brain is so complex and is likely wired slightly differently in each animal. You mess with one tiny part of the brain and it causes all sorts of effects you would not expect. I know this from my own brain damage and my experiences with many other people with brain damage. I am not surprised it was the high dose that caused the most issues and the brain damage, and it is so sad that those others likely have permeant brain damage. Science can be wonderful and even beautiful but it also has a dark side or can be manipulated.

[SalpalSally]

Dam mices wish they had tested it on them.
If they passed, I would definitely stay away from it.