
The Life of a Professional Guinea Pig - Jtsummers
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/09/life-of-a-professional-guinea-pig/406018/?single_page=true
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jakejake
“It sounds selfish,” Helms said of the deception, “but the way it works is,
I’m working poor, and the people making the drugs are filthy rich, and I need
a job.”

This guy disgusts me. He acts as though it's just some me-vs-them thing. Drugs
are being tested for people that really need them. Using deceit, purposely
throwing up the drugs to avoid side effects, etc, this is all shit that some
real, ill person is going to have to go through one day and he's skewing the
results.

I sincerely hope someone here can "disrupt" the clinical testing industry and
put this guy out of business.

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zeveb
> He acts as though it's just some me-vs-them thing.

Well, he's a former union organizer, so that attitude isn't surprising: it's
the same attitude one typically finds in union members, who don't view
management and employees as a team trying to satisfy their customers, but
instead as opponents trying to gain advantage over one another (and, as an
incidental side-effect, perhaps deliver products to customers).

~~~
Frondo
I don't think that is a fair characterization--though I'll readily agree that
it is a common one in the anti-union propaganda we've been swimming in for the
last few decades.

While it's true, in a general sense, that management and workers are all
working toward a common goal, only one side in that partnerships holds all the
power in that relationship, and it isn't the workers. Unions are a natural
response to that imbalance of power.

Chalking this guy's bad attitude up to union involvement is an unwarranted
anti-union slur, nothing more.

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at-fates-hands
I actually did this when I was in college. I started as a participant, then
started recruiting, and also worked as a monitor. When I left, I was trained
as a phlebotomist (someone who draws blood).

I did a ton of studies. Most were harmless like Diclofenac, Naproxen Sodium
and countless others. The first study I did was for Morphine and the company
did several studies in various strengths. I was in the study that did 15mg
dose, but they went as high as 30mg and had some issues with the higher doses.
Since they were dosing people on empty stomachs the higher dosed participants
threw up sometime after being dosed. There were two people in the 30mg
morphine study who got black listed from the company when they found out they
weren't taking the dosage.

I'm surprised the guy in the article still got paid considering its pretty
easy to tell if you've taken the drug they give you. The guy who ran the place
I was at said when they do blood draws, they can track the drug through your
system. It's like a bell curve. Your body absorbs the drug, then gradually
gets rid of it. If you don't take the pill, the line is totally flat.

I have a ton of stories since I worked for the company almost my entire
college career in some aspect or another. Since I worked both sides of the
equation, I could probably answer any question people have about doing this.

EDIT: The interesting they left out of the article was how this is taxed, and
if you have to pay taxes on this kind of work. It's something I ran into with
the company I was at.

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potatoman2
I'm disappointed this wasn't an article about actual guinea pigs, those
suckers are adorable.

~~~
meatysnapper
and surprisingly tasty (common Andean dish).

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MadcapJake
I was really hoping this article was about a working rodent. I got all
prepared for a guinea pig in a business suit.

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Mz
A few years ago, I was on a health list and someone was asking for non drug
alternatives for treating a chronic issue so they could get into a drug study.
The study would not take them while they were on this particular drug for
their chronic issue. For that and other reasons, I am already skeptical about
the data from drug trials. Some of his points are pretty scary, like about who
has the flexibility to enter a study where they will be locked up for several
weeks.

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lazyant
Doesn't seem a good idea to do a drug test on someone whose body has been
through a lot of unproven drugs already

