The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "drug trial" ...
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Baumgartner
At the start of 2011, the best known and probably most respected judge in Knoxville, Tenn., was Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, founder of Knox County's successful Drug Court and the judge who recently had presided over trials involving the most shocking crime in local memory, the carjacking, torture and murder of a young couple named Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The trials of four suspects led to a death sentence, two life sentences and one very long prison term. But soon after the new year began, Baumgartner took an abrupt leave of absence, ostensible for health reasons.
Tags: judge; Knoxville; trials; criminal court
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"Making a Killing"
A 26-year-old bipolar student enrolled in a drug trial at the University of Minnesota. However, Carl Elliott reveals that the professors who were ran the study knew that the student was probably "not competent to give his consent" because he suffered from "severe psychotic delusions." He was given a powerful antipsychotic and eventually stabbed himself to death. Elliott is "a professor of medical ethics at the University of Minnesota," and believes that the professors who were running the drug study would profit from it and that the student who committed suicide was "coerced" into participating.
Tags: bipolar; drug trial; antipsychotic; Seroquel; University of Minnesota; AstraZeneca
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Side Effects
Side Effects tells the story of a court case and the personal story that surrounded the making and unmasking of a bestselling drug, Paxil. "It chronicles the lives of two women - a prosecutor and a whistleblower - who exposes the pattern of deception in the research and marketing of Paxil, an antidepressant prescribed to millions of children and adults."
Tags: Paxil; FDA; side-effects; GlaxoSmithKline; drug regulators; drug regulation; depression in children; clinical trials; misappropriation;
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Disposable Heroes
The original story focused on Iraqi war veteran James Elliott, who suffered a psychotic breakdown and was stun gunned by police while taking the drug Chantix in a smoking cessation study by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The series examined the use of military veterans as guinea pigs in drug experiments conducted by the federal government and exposed numerous ethical lapses, including a system-wide failure to notify participants when the Food and Drug Administration issues new drug warnings.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs; veteran; drug trials; Food and Drug Administration; Soldiers for the Truth; human research studies; Pfizer; PTSD; smoking
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Dangerous Remedy
Robert Little of The (Baltimore) Sun reported that the U.S. Army has injected over 1000 soldiers wounded in Iraq with a medicine designed for hemophiliacs despite the fact that it is dangerous for people with normal blood. It can give them blood clots that could cause strokes and heart attacks. It costs $6000 per dose. Civilian doctors "have largely rejected it as a standard treatment for trauma patients." Army doctors say, in their experience, the drug saves lives by stopping hemorrhaging. Little says “Doctors in Iraq's emergency rooms, however, almost never care for their patients long enough to see firsthand whether blood clots or other complications have developed." Little reports that "the drug has never been subjected to a large-scale clinical trial to verify that it works and is safe for patients without hemophilia."
Tags: military medical system; Iraq; coagulant; Institute for Surgical Research; Germany; military hospitals; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; U.S. Department of Defense; DoD; Marines; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; U.S. Army Surgeon General; HIPPA; actionable intelligence; Recombinant Activated Factor VII; Novo Nordisk; coagulopathic bleeding;
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Degrees of Justice
Higgins told the story of Charles Plinton, a graduate student at the University of Akron. The story begins when Plinton was suspended for selling marijuana to a police informant just weeks after being acquitted of felony drug trafficking charges. The story ends with his suicide a year later on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Tags: drugs; education; graduate school; drug dealing; courts; trial; public records
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Small Town Justice
A Haitian truck driver, Jean Claude Meus, was convicted of vehicular homicide after a semi he was driving turned over and fell on a minivan, killing a mother and daughter. While no drugs or alcohol were present in his system at the time of the accident, prosecutors were able to push a conviction based on their assertion that he had fallen asleep at the wheel, and was thus driving recklessly. But WTVT-TV investigators "found convincing evidence that (he) did not fall asleep, and in fact, was trying to avoid an accident." An off-duty firefighter was a witness at the scene, and asserted that Meus was "alert and helpful immediately after the crash." Yet the lead investigator, who attended high school with victim Nona Moore, never interview Juan Otero, the off-duty firefighter. With the help of experts, WTVT reconstructed the crash, and the conclusion drawn was that Meus had turned off the road to avoid an obstruction. Further, WTVT spoke with jurors who said that with that new evidence, they would not have voted to convict.
Tags: Unfair trials; Florida Highway Patrol; quick convictions; crash reconstruction; juror bias; investigator bias; racial profiling; all-white jury
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Big Pharma's Shameful Secret
The story and five sidebars investigate the dangers of privately administered drug trials that are killing otherwise healthy people. Because companies stand to make billions on the next block-buster drug, they are taking more risks with their trials and the people who sign up for them. The story offers an in-depth look of the possibly dangerous practices of the largest test center in the U.S., SFCB in Miami, who pay poor citizens and immigrants to be part of their clinical trials.
Tags: prescription drugs; test centers; clinical trials; FDA; SFCB; Miami; Open Records Law; experimental medicine
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An American Family
This year-long series describes parolee Luis Aguilar and his family through his reentry period. Just as the first "chapter" was about to be published, the Aguilar household was raided by the police and Luis was arrested for selling drugs. The reporter found that Luis was wrongly charged and that police had coaxed testimonies from witnesses at the trial. This story describes how the family goes through ups and downs in their effort to rebuild their lives.
Tags: Luis Aguilar; drugs; wrongful conviction; threatening witnesses; parolee; Aguilar; wrong witness testimony
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How a cancer trial ended in betrayal
The Baltimore Sun's three-part series on BCX-34, an experimental cancer drug. It finds that "with billions at stake, research universities become partners in commerce--and medicine pays a price."
Tags: cancer; cancer trial; medicine; experimental drug; research; NIH; BCX-34