BMJ  2007;334:566-567 (17 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39150.488264.47

Observations

Medicine and the media

"We saw human guinea pigs explode"

¹ Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, ² Stroke Research Group, Institute for Ageing and Health, Clinical Research Facility, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP, ³ Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Department of General Internal Medicine, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DN

L Stobbart and colleagues examine newspaper coverage of adverse events in the TGN1412 trial

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Media coverage has been shown to affect patient and public participation in medical services.¹ Following the publicity surrounding the TGN1412 trial at Northwick Park Hospital in 2006,^{2 3 4} we might expect heightened media interest to affect recruitment of patients and healthy volunteers to medical research. Public discussion and awareness of this incident may have implications for science as a whole, ultimately generating changes in legislation governing the conduct of phase 1 studies in particular and clinical research in general. Concerns regarding inducements for recruiting volunteers to trials may also precipitate changes to the level and nature of payment for involvement, which may in turn further affect recruitment.

On 13 March 2006 eight men took part in a "first in man" phase 1 clinical trial of TGN1412, a humanised agonistic anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody being developed by TeGenero to treat various diseases in which T cells are involved, such as chronic inflammatory disorders . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Further lessons from the TGN1412 tragedy

Michael D E Goodyear
BMJ 2006 333: 270-271. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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