No, I haven't tried it and I probably wouldn't.
That's a lot of cash being offered for being a human guinea pig btw - she should really do her research before she signs that waiver. That doesn't mean just relying on what the drug company is telling you about how "safe" it is either. The more sketchy the drug, the more compensation they will offer for clinical trials.
If the drug is FDA approved already though, they are just doing clinical trials to compile more data, then I would be more open to it, especially if I had an existing condition and was paying out-of-pocket for medication. In these cases, patients have the opportunity to try new cutting-edge drugs for free, while being part of a clinical trial - and if they can't afford quality treatment, it's not a bad deal. There's a rigorous process for approval these days, so if it's already approved, you can be more confident in the safety and efficacy.
If the drug is still pending approval - do your research and know what you're getting into with regards to side-effect and long-term complications. See if there is another drug on the market in this same class of drugs and look up how it's fared. Many drugs in the same class will behave similarly to each other.
Based on what they are paying for 1 week trial, I seriously doubt it has FDA approval. She also may not get any benefits from the drug (assuming there are any) as these trials usually have control groups that use placebos and not the actual drug and the participants are not told which group they are in.
Personally, I would never do this unless I had something that was life threatening and it was a last resort. But if she is dead set on it, make sure she finds out all she can about the drug,any potential hazzards and also about the compnay the their past trials.
I would not take a chance doing that. You could end up being the guinea pig that is the reason they list all of those possible side effects.
They should test on prisoners. No fee to pay, and constant supply of test subjects. Let those rotters finally contribute something to society for once and not just cost taxpayers money supporting their sorry asses.
There is a big misconception as to what clinical trials are.
There are several steps that must take place before a drug can hit the market. First, it has to be proven to be effective. That is done on animal models generally. Those trials are small, but are used to determine how much of a drug is needed and what levels are safe. By safe, it doesn't mean it doesn't cause rare problems, it just means the dose that will kill you or seriously hurt you. Doing so lets them determine if the dose needed to produce an effect is safe.
After that is done, you still have to test it on humans. Afterall, we aren't rats. So a small group of people use the drug for a period of time to determine that. Usually, it's only a few weeks. They are monitored very closely during this to make sure it's not causing any serious problems. It's actually quite rare for a drug to cause life-threatening problems after that short of a trial. This trial is done to make sure it's relatively safe in humans and that it does in fact work.
Only if the drug is proven to work and is determined by the trials to be relatively safe, can it go to market. But what is relatively safe. Suppose 1 in a million people have a severe allergic reaction to the drug and it kills them. The chances of finding that out in a clinical trial are very low. So those problems aren't generally found until after they hit the market. The difference is that you generally don't have doctors checking you regularly with physicals and lab tests to make sure everything is ok.
So in essence, no drug is 100% safe. Everything has risks. The risks are higher in clinical trials because they just don't know yet. That's why they pay you. But the chances of having something serious happen to you because of it are actually quite low. Bottom line, someone has to be the first to try something out, right? If no one was willing, we wouldn't have any medications.
most clinical trials also look for people with certain conditions. Unless i had the condition and could not afford treatment, or was at a point where no other treatments were having an effect, i doubt i would do it
One week seems like a very short period of time to conduct the testing. More time that is typically needed to determine the efficacy of the product. If it is a sleeping pill, that could be different and the reason for being in residence.
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