ARTICLE - Preventing a recurrence of the Northwick Park trial

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Preventing A Recurrence Of The Northwick Park Trial

MedicalNewsToday.com

Article Date: 17 Dec 2008 - 1:00 PST

Scientists investigating the 2006 Northwick Park drug-trial disaster

that left six healthy volunteers hospitalised say they have developed

new pre-clinical tests that could have stopped the trial from ever

going ahead.

But Dr Poole, speaking at the British Pharmacological

Society's Winter Meeting in Brighton, said that research is still

" ongoing " to understand why the drug had such an adverse effect in the

clinic but not in pre-clinical testing.

Describing the incident as " the most obvious setback for medicines

testing since thalidomide " , Dr Poole and his colleagues, from the

National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) have,

with new tests, successfully reproduced the devastating reaction

suffered by the volunteers using human cells in the test tube (in

vitro).

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