Asunto(s)
Vacunas contra la COVID-19/provisión & distribución , Ensayos Clínicos Fase III como Asunto/ética , Salud de la Familia/ética , Gobierno Federal , Política , Opinión Pública , Investigadores/ética , Universidades , Protocolos Clínicos , Ensayos Clínicos Fase III como Asunto/métodos , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Perú , ConfianzaRESUMEN
In 2008, Brazil's Federal Council of Medicine [Conselho Federal de Medicina] (CFM)--regulatory and supervisory agency on the ethical practice of medicine--banned the participation of Brazilian doctors in studies using placebos for diseases with efficient and effective treatment. This position differs with the Helsinki Declaration, which allows the use of placebos in methodologically justified conditions. To ascertain whether the CMF's ethical regulation modified the use of placebos in phase III clinical trials in Brazil, characteristics of the records in ClinicalTrials.gov were researched in the periods from 2003 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2013. The conclusions reached were: a) the regulations issued by the CFM in 2008 were ineffective and the position adopted by the Helsinki Declaration prevails; b) there was significant sponsorship by the multinational pharmaceutical industry of trials with placebos; c) the research was predominantly on new drugs for chronic diseases, with little study done of the neglected diseases which are of great importance to Brazil.
Asunto(s)
Ensayos Clínicos Fase III como Asunto/ética , Placebos , Brasil , Ensayos Clínicos Fase III como Asunto/economía , Ensayos Clínicos Fase III como Asunto/métodos , Ensayos Clínicos Fase III como Asunto/estadística & datos numéricos , Industria Farmacéutica/ética , Declaración de Helsinki , Humanos , Apoyo a la Investigación como Asunto/éticaRESUMEN
RATIONALE: Reasons given for the routine use of placebos in Phase III clinical research are not convincing. Ethically inadequate strategies such as using placebos and recruiting the mentally incompetent for non-therapeutic research are allegedly permissible because research is purportedly aimed at benefiting the common weal. METHOD AND RESULTS: A review of current literature concludes that placebos are not equivalent to inactive substances, as has been amply shown in clinical use; in research settings they may actually be harmful, for patients recruited as research subjects often develop expectations that are all the more frustrated if they receive a control substance that is not therapeutic but may show unexpected side effects. Supposedly inert control substances have met with strong opposition, for patients are placed at risk of becoming therapeutic orphans when their current medication is withdrawn and they have a 50% chance of being randomized to the inactive control arm. Using placebos, it is claimed, increase the internal validity of a study, but this concern appears misplaced when scant attention to external validity is given. CONCLUSIONS: Although rejected and disregarded by many investigators, it is an accepted practice that control groups should receive the best treatment in existence, not what is locally available nor a placebo. Inactive comparators should only be used when no effective medications exists for the disease under scrutiny. Bioethics should be wary of the tenuous justifications presented, as researchers rarely resort to placebos in their own sponsor countries, while actively endorsing them in Third World nations where most of their trials are being located.