Compensation for research injuries: Thoughts from a human research ethics committee chair

Abstract

In the first clinical trial compensation court case in South Africa (Venter vs Roche Products (Pty) Limited and Others (case no. 12285/08), Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry guidelines compensation limited a participant to appropriate medical treatment, which is common in many countries. Change in policy is likely to take years, but what could be done rapidly for potential clinical trial participants is to make the limitation more obvious by placing this in a separate page instead of in a small section near the end of multipage information and consent document.