Ethical Principles in Clinical Research

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Ethical Principles in Clinical Research

• Christine Grady
• Department of Clinical Bioethics
• National Institutes of Health

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Moral problem in clinical research

• The purpose of clinical research is generation of
  knowledge about human health and illness
• Benefit to participants, although it often
  occurs, is not the purpose of research
• People are the means to developing useful
  knowledge and are thus at risk of exploitation

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Ethics of Clinical Research

• Ethical requirements in clinical research aim to
• minimize the possibility of exploitation
• ensure that subjects rights and welfare are
  respected while contributing to the generation of
  knowledge.

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Codes and Guidelines

• Nuremberg Code (1949)
• Declaration Of Helsinki (1964, 75, 83, 89, 96
  2000)
• The Belmont Report (1979)
• CIOMS/WHO International Ethical Guidelines For
  Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects
  (1993, 2002)
• ICH/GCP-International Conference on
  Harmonization- Good Clinical Practice (1996)

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THE BELMONT REPORTNational Commission for the
Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and
Behavioral Research

• Difference between clinical research and clinical
  practice

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THE BELMONT REPORT

• Ethical principles underlying the conduct of
  research
• Respect for persons
• Beneficence
• Justice

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U.S. Regulations and Guidelines

• The Common Rule (US 45CFR.46)
• NIH policy and guidelines
• FDA regulations (US 21CFR50 and 56)
• NIH assurance (FWA)

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45CFR.46 Protection of Human Subjects

• Composition and function of a local institutional
  review board (IRB)
• Criteria for IRB approval of proposals
• Requirements regarding informed consent

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45CFR 46

• Subpart B- Fetuses, pregnant women, and human in
  vitro fertilization
• Subpart C- Prisoners as subjects
• Subpart D- Children

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FDA REGULATIONS

• 21CFR.50 Protection of Human Subjects (informed
  consent)
• New Subpart D on research with children
• 21CFR.56 IRB composition and function

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Ethical framework existing guidance

• Much guidance developed in response to specific
  historical events
• Divergent recommendations
• Certain issues incompletely addressed in codes
  and regulations
• Need for a systematic, coherent, universally
  applicable framework

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Ethical framework 7 principles

• Valuable scientific question
• Valid scientific methodology
• Fair subject selection
• Favorable risk-benefit evaluation
• Independent review
• Informed consent
• Respect for enrolled subjects
• Emanuel E, Wendler D, Grady C. What makes
  clinical research ethical? Journal of the
  American Medical Association 2000
  283(20)2701-11

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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Valuable Scientific Question
• Limited Resources and Avoidance of Exploitation
• A socially, clinically, or scientifically useful
  research question that will generate useful new
  knowledge about human health

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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Valid Scientific Methodology
• Limited Resources and Avoidance of Exploitation
• Study design, methodology, statistical power,
  and feasible strategy that will yield valid,
  reliable, generalizable, and interpretable data.

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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Fair Subject Selection
• Justice
• Selection of subjects for reasons of science,
  related to the purpose of the study, not because
  they are readily available, vulnerable, or
  otherwise easily exploited, or are favored.

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Selection of subjects

• Consistent with scientific goals
• Select subjects to minimize risks and maximize
  benefits
• Do not exclude groups or individuals without a
  good reason of science or susceptibility to risk,
  harm, or burden
• Consider distribution of burdens and benefits of
  research

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Research as risk or benefit?
Research as risk Subjects need protection
Research as benefit Subjects need access
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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Balance of Risks and Benefits
• Non-maleficence and Beneficence
• Minimize risks to subjects
• Maximize benefits to individual subjects
  and to society
• Benefits should be proportional to or outweigh
  risks.

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Risks in research

• Defining risks
• Probability and magnitude
• Types of risk
• Uncertainty
• Minimizing risks
• Limiting risk

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Benefits in research

• Defining benefits
• Direct versus secondary benefits
• Maximizing benefits
• Balancing risks and benefits

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Benefits and Risks in Research

• Interests other than those of the subject may
  on some occasions be sufficient by themselves to
  justify the risks involved in the research, so
  long as the subjects rights have been protected.
• The Belmont Report

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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Independent Review
• Minimize conflict of interest
• Public Accountability
• Independent review of clinical research ensures
  the public that investigator biases have not
  distorted the approach, that ethical requirements
  have been fulfilled, and that subjects will not
  be exploited.

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Criteria for IRB Review (45CFR.46.111 and
21CFR56.111)

• Risks are minimized.
• Risks are justified by anticipated benefits, if
  any, to the subjects or the importance of the
  knowledge to be gained
• Subjects will be selected and treated fairly
• Informed consent is adequate

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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Informed Consent
• Respect for Persons
• Voluntary agreement to participate, based on
  understanding the objectives, risks, benefits,
  and alternatives of the research.

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Informed Consent

• The voluntary consent of the human subject is
  absolutely essential. Nuremberg Code
• For all biomedical research involving human
  subjects, the investigator must obtain the
  informed consent of the prospective subjector
  authorized representative. CIOMS guidelines

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Informed Consent

• To the degree subjects are capable, they should
  be given the opportunity to choose what shall or
  shall not happen to them.
• Consent process information, comprehension, and
  voluntariness.
• The Belmont Report

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Informed consent

• Capacity to consent
• Protection of those with limited capacity
• Disclosure of information
• Assessing understanding
• Voluntary decision making. Avoiding coercion and
  undue influence
• Authorization

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Essential Elements of Ethical Research

• Respect for Enrolled Subjects
• Beneficence and Respect for Persons
• Right to withdraw.
• Confidentiality of subject data.
• Informing subjects.
• Monitoring subject welfare.

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Respect for enrolled subjects

• During the course of the experiment the human
  subject should be at liberty to bring the
  experiment to an end Nuremberg Code
• Every precaution should be taken to respect the
  privacy of the subject ,the confidentiality of
  the subjects information, and to minimize the
  impact of the study on physical and mental
  integrity and on the personality of the subject.
  Helsinki 2000

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Ethical framework 7 principles

• Valuable scientific question
• Valid scientific methodology
• Fair subject selection
• Favorable risk-benefit evaluation
• Independent review
• Informed consent
• Respect for enrolled subjects

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Balancing principles

• Example Randomized Controlled Trials
• a rigorous design lt-gt maximizing
  benefits/minimizing harms
• Equipoise
• Randomization

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Choice of control

• The benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness
  of a new method should be tested against those of
  the best current prophylactic, diagnostic, and
  therapeutic methods. (Helsinki 2000)
• Balance the need to answer the valuable question
  in a scientifically rigorous way, with
  consideration of risks and benefits.

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Clinical Equipoise

• Genuine uncertainty within the scientific
  community... about the comparative merits of
  intervention A and B (Freedman, 1987)

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Randomization

• Random assignment
• No individualization
• No preferences
• Do participants understand random assignment?

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Links to more information

• http//www.wma.net
• http//www.cioms.ch
• http//ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov
• http//ohsr.od.nih.gov/
• http//www/fda.gov
• http//cme.nci.nih.gov/