Private equity’s role in the ethics of drug research

<p><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Zv9E!,f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_pro…; alt="https%3A%2F%2Fcitizencartwright.substack"></p><div><p>You and I have talked many times in recent years about private equity’s increased investment in health care — buying hospitals, doctors’ practices, nursing homes, hospices.</p><p><span>Longtime readers will recall the </span><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/private-equity/">KFF Health News</a><span> series “Patients for profit: How private equity hijacked health care.”</span></p><p><span>Here is more on private equity in health care, from the American Medical Association’s </span><a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/issue/private-equity-health-care">… of Ethics</a><span>.</span></p><p><span>Now, a </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/health/drug-trials-ethics-ozempic.ht… York Times</a><span> article is headlined, “How private equity oversees the ethics of drug research.”</span></p><p>Institutional review boards are supposed to be independent watchdogs — counterweights to Big Pharma and overzealous researchers, the Times says.</p><p><span>They exist to protect the rights and safety of human subjects who participate in research studies, says </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/institutional-review-board">Britannica… first ethics panels were created in response to testing scandals in the 1960s and ’70s, says the Times. Live cancer cells were injected into patients. Experiments were performed on babies less than 48 hours old. In the Tuskegee study, researchers tracked African American men who had syphilis without offering penicillin to treat it.</p><p>Initially, IRBs were nonprofits based at universities and hospitals.</p><p>“But in recent years, private-equity investors have increasingly reshaped them as for-profit endeavors,” the Times says.</p><p>As drug companies have raced to develop the next blockbuster, private equity has promised quicker, more efficient reviews, the Times says. At the same time, private-equity ownership has driven the boards’ expansion far beyond their original watchdog role.</p><p><span>More than half of all U.S. drug trials now are reviewed by for-profit panels. The firms WCG Clinical and Advarra have accounted for all but a small fraction of them, according to a 2023 report by the </span><a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/820/816876.pdf">Government Accountability Office</a><span>.</span></p><p>And both firms “have become part of multipronged enterprises selling pharmaceutical companies a wide range of drug-testing services — blurring the line between the reviewer and the reviewed, introducing potential conflicts of interest that threaten the review boards’ mission,” the Times says.</p><p><span>Billionaire populist Andrej Babis’ party wins </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62qezmr92lo">Czech Republic</a><span> parliamentary election</span></p><p><span>Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke protected immigration status for hundreds of thousands of </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-tru… href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-lgbtq-tariffs-birthright… Court</a><span> term starts Monday, with conservative majority receptive to many Trump policies so far</span></p><p><span>Federal appeals court rules that Trump administration can’t end </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/birthright-citizenship-ruling-appeals-trump-… citizenship</a></p><p><span>Federal judge blocks Trump’s National Guard deployment in </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/05/national-guard-oregon-californ…; for second time in 2 days</span></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-antisemitism-patel-comey-kirk-f997bd60b9…; cuts its ties with Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League after conservative complaints</span></p><p><span>Heather Cox Richardson on the power of unelected bureaucrats </span><a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-3-2025?utm_source=p… Vought, Stephen Miller</a></p><p><span>Government shutdown hasn’t stopped the </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/stock-market-rates-records-shutdown-earnings… market</a><span>; here’s what may</span></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/apple-ice-iphone-app-immigration-fb6a404d3e9…, Google</a><span> block apps that crowdsource ICE sightings after Trump administration demands</span></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-deportation-abrego-garcia-asylum… Garcia</a><span> wins request for hearing on whether human smuggling charges are illegally ‘vindictive’</span></p><p><span>Oct. 18 </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-no-king-protest"&gt;‘No Kings’ protests</a><span> are on track to be even bigger than in June</span></p><p><span>KFF: Inside the high-stakes battle over </span><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/autism-vaccine-injury-compensati… injury compensation, autism, public trust</a></p></div>