Clinical Trials Today: ethica Heads to South America

According to Clinical Trials Today,

ethica Clinical Research, a Montreal, Canada-based contract research organization (CRO), has partnered with Argentina-based Blanchard y Asociados to provide ethics review services for clinical trials in Latin America.

ethica founder and president, Janice Parente said,

“We’re already conducting trials in Latin America as a CRO. By opening our office in Buenos Aires,Veritas IRB becomes the first accredited IRB in Argentina ... and this provides us with the assurance that research participants’ rights and welfare will be protected in the studies that we and others participate in. We can now offer to investigators an IRB that is accredited and we can rest assured when we’re conducting the trials that risk management is being handled properly.”

Because South America is a traditionally different market in CRO, it’s going to be an interesting to gauge the success of ethica’s endeavor. Patient rights and responsibilities are key; but, how much will this cost and will the clinical research organizations be happy to foot the bill?