We were thrilled to stumble across this newly available, open-access, paper titled Promoting Ethical Payment in Human Infection Challenge Studies in The American Journal of Bioethics. The paper discusses the process to determine ethically defensible compensation levels for research subjects, with special emphasis on trials that involve intentionally exposing participants to infectious agents, such as the virus that causes COVID-19. The issue of appropriate compensation is one the UAMS IRB thinks about a lot. While we have no immediate recollection of reviewing a challenge study here, this type of study takes on additional importance when we try to do things like, say, quickly develop a vaccine for a pandemic-causing disease. So we can’t rule out such research being done here in the future. We’re excited to have access to this article.
But then — we noticed UAMS’ own Akilah Jefferson Shah, MD, M.Sc. is a co-author! Congratulations, Dr. Jefferson Shah, and thank you for your work on this timely topic.