Tragedy of the uncommon

On 13 March six men were admitted to intensive care at Northwick Park Hospital, London, after suffering severe reactions while taking part in a phase 1 clinical trial of an experimental drug in a research unit run at the hospital by US-owned Parexel International, a contract research company. Two days later, the story hit the front pages, as successive editions of the London Evening Standard announced " Guinea Pig Drug Students In Fight For Life " and " Drugs Victim Left Like The Elephant Man ". The Daily Mail trumpeted " Hell Of Human Guinea Pigs ". In the days following, The Sun in particular highlighted the human story. " Ryan was a healthy young man and he saw the trial advertised on the internet. He is at college and was doing it to make a bit of extra money, " a family friend had said. " He told us he would be paid £2000 and did not think there would be any problems. His mother got a call last night to say his head and neck were swelled up and his legs had turned purple. " " Give us answers, demand families, " added the Daily Mail. Alongside a photograph of " the one who got away " (a volunteer given placebo) a caption read " They were writhing, screaming, burning up and begging for help. " Virtually ignoring the story itself, the Daily Mirror allocated a whole page to " The Vulture – Exposed… hospital porter who tried to sell pictures of the drug trial victims ". For the most part, journalists from right across the media spectrum worked hard and quickly to determine the underlying facts about the trial, and to explain the various ways in which it might have gone awry. The " drug " was in fact an immunomodulatory humanised agonistic CD28 monoclonal antibody, TGN 1412, developed by the company TeGenero at the University of Wurzburg in Germany. Its purpose was to bind to and activate killer T cells, as a possible means of treating leukaemia, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, and it had been administered to six healthy volunteers. Another two, who received a placebo, had not become ill. Previous animal tests had reportedly given no indication of possible toxicity. The Independent weighed in with a curious item headed News focus Mediawatch: Bernard Dixon looks at the response of the British media to the …