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Unlike other medical trials involving chronic illness, cancer trials have a pretty clear indicator of whether the treatment is successful- (most) the patients s

Unlike other medical trials involving chronic illness, cancer trials have a pretty clear indicator of whether the treatment is successful- (most) the patients survive longer than their prognosis. In this sense, there's not much freedom for the Chinese biofirms to commit fraud during a treatment trial. Everything is verifiable.

JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
Why would falsifying that data be any harder? Don’t you just substitute patient lived for patient had less headaches or whatever?
- TheMagicHorsey 9y ago
  Its hard to fake that a dead person is still alive. Its easier to say that they reported no headaches.
- guardiangod 9y ago
  You can always fudge your trial result. What I am saying is that the line between an effective treatment and an ineffective treatment is very clear- more patients are alive by the end of the trial. Versus, say, a test for a new antidepressant drugs, where being 'happier' is hard to quantify. Everything else is just record tracking.
cannabisceo 9y ago
This isn't exactly true. People with cancer often have comorbidities that are 'competing events' and survival does not always tell the full story. I published about this topic and it's more complex and subtle than you would think. https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/research/population-health-methods/competing-risk-analysis https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/research/population-health-...
ilamont 9y ago
"80% of China’s clinical trial data are fraudulent, investigation finds" ust over 80% of clinical trial data submitted to support new drug registrations in China have been revealed as fraudulent or substandard by the country’s drug regulator. An investigation of data for 1622 new drugs submitted to China’s State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) for registration said that 1308 of the applications should be withdrawn because they contained fabricated, flawed, or inadequate data from clinical trials.1 In a damning report released on 9 September the CFDA described the findings of widespread fraud as shocking and vowed to crack down on what it described as a “chaotic” situation in the country’s clinical trials industry. Much of the blame was attributed to the country’s loosely regulated clinical research organisations, which industry insiders claimed operate in … https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5396 https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5396
- newnewpdro 9y ago
  There's a Vice on HBO episode where they covered the Chinese practice of "renting a white guy" [1]. I mention it here because in the segment there was a white expat employed to masquerade as a doctor giving presentations on subjects he had zero qualifications for. They used his foreign appearance and language to lend credence to what was being presented, it's a disturbing scene. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jGSerN_1sM&t=14m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jGSerN_1sM&t=14m
Florin_Andrei 9y ago
> Everything is verifiable. Nah. If there's a will, there's a way. Trustworthy data is more of a social contract thing than anything else.
rdlecler1 9y ago
You could remove individuals that didn’t pass your trial.

JohnJamesRambo 9y ago

Why would falsifying that data be any harder? Don’t you just substitute patient lived for patient had less headaches or whatever?

TheMagicHorsey 9y ago
Its hard to fake that a dead person is still alive. Its easier to say that they reported no headaches.
guardiangod 9y ago
You can always fudge your trial result. What I am saying is that the line between an effective treatment and an ineffective treatment is very clear- more patients are alive by the end of the trial. Versus, say, a test for a new antidepressant drugs, where being 'happier' is hard to quantify. Everything else is just record tracking.

cannabisceo 9y ago

This isn't exactly true. People with cancer often have comorbidities that are 'competing events' and survival does not always tell the full story. I published about this topic and it's more complex and subtle than you would think. https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/research/population-health-methods/competing-risk-analysis https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/research/population-health-...

ilamont 9y ago

"80% of China’s clinical trial data are fraudulent, investigation finds" ust over 80% of clinical trial data submitted to support new drug registrations in China have been revealed as fraudulent or substandard by the country’s drug regulator. An investigation of data for 1622 new drugs submitted to China’s State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) for registration said that 1308 of the applications should be withdrawn because they contained fabricated, flawed, or inadequate data from clinical trials.1 In a damning report released on 9 September the CFDA described the findings of widespread fraud as shocking and vowed to crack down on what it described as a “chaotic” situation in the country’s clinical trials industry. Much of the blame was attributed to the country’s loosely regulated clinical research organisations, which industry insiders claimed operate in … https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5396 https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5396

newnewpdro 9y ago
There's a Vice on HBO episode where they covered the Chinese practice of "renting a white guy" [1]. I mention it here because in the segment there was a white expat employed to masquerade as a doctor giving presentations on subjects he had zero qualifications for. They used his foreign appearance and language to lend credence to what was being presented, it's a disturbing scene. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jGSerN_1sM&t=14m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jGSerN_1sM&t=14m

Florin_Andrei 9y ago

> Everything is verifiable. Nah. If there's a will, there's a way. Trustworthy data is more of a social contract thing than anything else.

rdlecler1 9y ago

You could remove individuals that didn’t pass your trial.