How do trials pay?: Play the game
Different countries have different standards for paying clinical trial participants. In some places, says National institutes of Health's Christine Grady, a bag of rice or a bag of soap are considered more appropriate than cash. Institutional Review Boards (IRB s) say they try to translate US standards for payment into amounts appropriate for the region. The Human Subjects Committee at Harvard's School of Public Health, for example, sees mostly international studies on HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. "In so many of these countries there just isn't a regulatory structure yet," says Michelle Mello, a professor of health policy and law who co-chairs the committee. "But typically we would ask investigators to tell us what is an average wage in this part of the world, and if they were uncertain we would hire an independent analyst to look it ...
