Me-too drugs are considered less innovative because FDA approval of drugs is generally made on the basis of a drug’s superiority to a placebo, not its superiority to existing drugs. FDA data show that 53% of the drugs approved between 1982 and 1991 offered “little or no therapeutic gain.” Between 1996 and 2001, “the pharmaceutical companies’ spending on research and development increased by 40%, but the number of new drugs reaching the market decreased by 50%. Of 31 “blockbuster drugs” launched between 1992 and 2001, 23 were me-too drugs for common conditions such as allergies and inflammation.”

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, there is a lot of great information packed into a relatively short and easy-to read book. On the other hand, I found Petryna's approach to the relevant issues addressed in the book to be both disorganized as well as often ambiguous - she seems to waffle between condemnation and what she calls the anthropologist's role: observing without judging. I guess I find this claim that as an anthropologist, she is somehow "above" passing judgment on the phenomena she reports on to be both condescending as well as disingenuous, given some of her commentary.

When Experiments Travel is a report of the outsourcing of clinical trials research to developing countries, and the ethical issues that can arise as a result of such out-sourcing. Although not organized in what I would call a coherent manner, Petryna does address the regulatory history governing clinical trials research, the current regulatory framework governing research and the loopholes in that framework which leave room for pharmaceutical companies to manipulate the resources at their disposal, some of the problems which arise as a result of out-sourcing, such as the influence clinical trials can have on the health care systems of host countries, the danger of exploitation of trial subjects, and the ways that industry can build bias into their study designs in ways that the FDA doesn't necessarily pay attention to. Her narrative is interspersed with a good amount of interview material conducted with clinical trialists and workers in the pharmaceutical and CRO industries. Quite possibly the largest drawback of the book is her imposition of the anthropological framework she is trying to sell over the content of the book. She develops the idea of "experimentality" as a particular mindset, and then throughout the book tries to super-impose this concept onto her subject matter in various ways which often seem arbitrary and ad hoc. I suspect the book would have lost no value if this aspect had been removed, and it might actually have turned out to be a superior product.

This would be a good read for those with an academic interest in international research ethics, not least of all due to the extensive bibliography. I don't think, however, that the book is written in a way that makes it very accessible or interesting to leisure readers - I would probably recommend Sonia Shah's The Body Hunters for readers interested in a more down-to-earth and compelling treatment of these same issues. ( )