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Article ID: CBB066653855

Feeding and Bleeding: The Institutional Banalization of Risk to Healthy Volunteers in Phase I Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials (March 2015)

Fisher, Jill A. (Author)

Science, Technology and Human Values
Volume: 40
Issue: 2
Pages: 199-226

DOI: 10.1177/0162243914554838

Publication Date: March 2015
Edition Details: Special Issue: Ethics, Organizations, and Science
Language: English

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Phase I clinical trials are the first stage of testing new pharmaceuticals in humans. The majority of these studies are conducted under controlled, inpatient conditions using healthy volunteers who are paid for their participation. This article draws on an ethnographic study of six phase I clinics in the United States, including 268 semistructured interviews with research staff and healthy volunteers. In it, I argue that an institutional banalization of risk structures the perceptions of research staff and healthy volunteers participating in the studies. For research staff, there are three mechanisms by which risk becomes banal: a perceived homogeneity of studies, Fordist work regimes, and data-centric discourse. For healthy volunteers, repeat study participation contributes to the institutional banalization of risk both through the process of desensitization to risk and the formation of trust in the clinics. I argue that the institutional banalization of risk also renders invisible ethical concerns about exploitation of underprivileged groups in pharmaceutical research.

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Article Jennifer L. Croissant (March 2015) Routine, Scale, and Inequality: Introduction to the Special Issue on Ethics, Organizations, and Science. Science, Technology and Human Values (pp. 167-175). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB066653855/

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