I remember it like it was yesterday, and it happened a quarter of a century ago.
Testing a new drug.
Unemployed, still a student, thinking about how to get money and thus help the family by adding money to the budget, at the invitation of a friend from the Faculty of Pharmacy, I accept the offer to be a "guinea pig".
In the final phase of testing the Indian painkiller, pharmacists needed a total of 20 young people, who would be divided into two groups.
Years before that, in situations when I (or someone from my environment) needed a medicine against pain, I used some medicines that either had too weak an effect or were so strong that they had a lot of negative consequences.
This medicine, according to the friend who invited me, is designed to affect the pain acutely, exactly where the pain exists.
Allegedly, the drug had no contraindications, and it could be used by everyone (except for people with stomach damage).
Ugh, how good it would be to have such a medicine. I hoped that the final phase of testing would give results and that the drug would be put into use.
The testing was carried out in two weeks. in the first week, one group received the real drug, while the other received a placebo, and the following week, the first group received a placebo and the second received the real drug.
After taking the medicine, we had all-day activities at the university, taking a blood sample for testing every hour, and in the meantime we read, watched movies, drank juices, ate sandwiches, played cards or some other social games. All with the aim of making the day pass quickly.
We each took our pill and waited for the blood to be taken. The doctor who drew our blood that day got the sarcastic nickname "vampire" because she poked us everywhere she went. I didn't know that a blood sample could be taken from so many points on my body.
One of the extractions was from a vein on my ear. Creepy, but totally painless...
The day passed, and I went home, not knowing whether I drank the drug for the test or the placebo.
Indeed, I had no symptoms.
It was the same the following week, when it was time for the second pill.
The same again, the pill, then juices, sandwiches, reading, a movie, and drawing blood, drawing blood, drawing blood. Dr. Vampire was up to the task this time as well 😁
After the test was completed, I took the agreed amount and asked my friend to let me know how the test went.
When I got home, I felt good, and I had the impression that the part of my back that hurt me was hurting less.. Does the medicine work?
Luckily, I didn't grow a tail, a horn on my head, a third arm or a leg 😅
I had no symptoms, but the drug test was successful.
A few months later, this medicine appeared on the shelves of pharmacies.
Although it may have been crazy to accept such an offer, I was glad that I participated in the final testing and that I helped make this medicine.
Several times in later years, that drug helped me in the fight against pain, and I often received words of gratitude when I recommended this drug to others who had pain.
Topic given by galenkp
If you were invited to do a clinical trial for a new medical "cure" for an illness you had but the possible side-effects were completely unknown and there was no guarantee of improvement would you do it or not?
it somehow fits with this experience of mine, so I'm sharing it with you.
Maybe it was a crazy decision, a health risk, but it was testing the drug under license and in the final test, so I wasn't exactly a lab mouse.
This had to be tested on a healthy human, and I accepted that role. True for the money, but maybe I would accept it if it was free, because sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself for higher goals.
