Several articles today look at the expansion in the number of clinical trials taking place around the world.

The Guardain – prompted by a report published at the World Conference of Science Journalists – looks at the ethical issues arising out of the increasing number of trials in the developing world.

This article in Pharma Times covers the employment impact in India of the anticipated boom in clinical trials there.

While a London-based company – visiongain – forecasts a 50% increase in the clinical trials market in its comprehensive analysis of what’s going on. The report costs almost the same as a clinical trial but you will get the gist from this PR Newswire report.

My interest was piqued by this study from the FDA in the US looking at how clinical trials are monitored there. My take-away was the extent to which industry monitors and inspects what is going onmore closely than their counterparts in government and academia. It is a question that bubbles about on this side of the Atlantic as well with not a few arguing that funders should be shouldering a greater responsibility to ensure good conduct.

And this seemed a good piece to end on about the Australian Government’s review of medical and health research. It asks whether Governments should not use crowd-sourcing and similar devices for such reviews.