Drug Trial Victims Face High Cancer Risk
By Alex Berry

Victims of the disastrous "Elephant Man" drug trial have been warned that they face an increased risk of contracting cancer and other deadly diseases.

One of them, a 30-year-old man who has recently married, was told that he was showing "definite early signs" of lymphatic cancer.

Lawyers believe that Parexel, the US firm that ran the trial, could face a bill of up to £30 million in compensation.

Martyn Day [no relation], who represents four of the victims, said: "They face a lifetime of contracting cancers and all the various auto-immune diseases from lupus to MS, from rheumatoid arthritis to ME."

Last week Mr Day passed on a medical assessment by the immunologist Prof Richard Powell to his clients, who include Nav Modi, 24, from Forest Gate, east London, and three other men aged 19, 30 and 29.

Prof Powell wrote of patient A, the 30-year-old: "It is highly likely (more than 50 per cent) that A will develop auto-immune diseases and has definite early signs that a lymphoid malignancy is developing."

The man, who has not been named, is to meet doctors in the next few weeks to decide on a course of treatment. There is optimism about his chances of survival if it is dealt with at an early stage.

Six volunteers suffered multiple organ failure after they were paid £2,000 each to take part in the drug trial at Northwick Park Hospital in London in March.

Mr Modi said: "I have made the biggest mistake of my life. I feel like I've given away my life for £2,000. None of us is sure about the future. It could be that in six months' time we are dead."

Mr Day said the victims of the trial may be entitled to between £2 million and £5 million each in compensation.
The Daily Telegraph, 31st July 2006

Drug Trial Victim's Cancer Claim

A man who fell ill following drug trials at Northwick Park Hospital says he now has the early signs of cancer. Six men were left seriously ill after volunteering to take part in the trials in north-west London earlier this year.

David Oakley told the Mail on Sunday that he is now seeking compensation from Parexel, which arranged for the drug trials to take place.

There is no evidence to show Mr Oakley's cancer was caused by the experimental treatments.

Mr Oakley said he was first made aware of a potential problem about two months ago when blood tests revealed "cells that shouldn't be there", which he says indicate he has early stages of the disease.

He said: "It's an early sign of cancer. The best I could actually get was that if we catch it early enough it is treatable. At the moment I haven't felt any physical effects but the paperwork, the blood work, that's all there and apparently there are early indications [of cancer]. I'm going to try and be as positive as I can and if mind over matter has anything to do with it, well, I'll give it a good try. I can't dwell on it because if I dwell on it I'm just going to go down in a heap."

Mr Oakley said he was particularly concerned about potential damage to his auto-immune system that could lead to illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

"If anything they worry me more because I don't want to be left in a situation where I'm stuck in intense pain and can't do anything about it. That's probably my worst fear."

He said that "someone has to be accountable and Parexel should be accountable. They made a mistake."

Seeking compensation
"Really I'm just trying to do my bit and pointing out their mistake. If someone doesn't point it out it could happen again and there's no way I would like to see someone else go through what we're going through right now."

Mr Oakley is now seeking compensation and said he hoped the company would "do the right thing" in respect to his claim.

BBC News attempted to contact Parexel on Saturday evening but was unsuccessful. Parexel is a clinical research organisation which carried out the trial on behalf of TeGenero, a German pharmaceutical company.

Completely unexpected
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has previously said Parexel failed to follow proper procedures.

It found there was no contract in place between TeGenero and Parexel at the beginning of the trial. TeGenero has maintained that the men's reactions were "completely unexpected" and did not reflect the results obtained from the earlier laboratory studies.

Parexel has previously said all guidelines were followed during the drug trial.
BBC News, 5th August 2006