title: In which wretched part of the world? A glimpse into western drug- and device-makers (and others) behaving badly.
abstract: A bioethics colleague wrote of the efforts of those in India "who struggle each and every day in this wretched part of the world" to eliminate corruption from the clinical and research practice of medicine, and from medical education. Wretchedness is the human condition. Corruption is endemic- and is a pandemic. Both have anchors as firm in the West as anywhere else in the world. The record of wretchedness-whether personal, corporate, institutional, or a combination thereof-is not measured in events, weeks, or months, but in patterns of practice often across decades. The conditions have no single home, residence, or country of origin. They exist when and where one abets acts or omissions that take advantage of power, or access to it, and adulterate or debase a system-particularly one of governance. The answer is to identify and share information on the problems and problem-makers, and so cooperate in efforts to increase transparency at all levels of medical research, care, and education. A reasoned first step in this regard would be the institution of a central website at which, inter alia, questioned research might be identified by journal, article, subject matter, publication date, and authors-and, where appropriate, company; specifics as to questioned data elements and history regarding communication to and with the authors as to the questioned data elements might be set forth; and some resolution of a matter might be posted.
authors.affiliation: Affiliated Scholar, the Edmund D. Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center, School of Medicine, Washington DC,USA e-mail: john.gillon@starpower.net.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gillon
mesh_terms: D003415:Crime / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000941:ethics*; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D015871:Scientific Misconduct / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States