The Financialization of Digital Clinical Trials

Abstract

This chapter intervenes in scholarly discussions about the decentralization of clinical trials by arguing that the rapidly growing involvement of private equity firms in digital clinical trials may be inconsistent with the goal of making scientific evidence and safe and effective medicine widely accessible. First, the chapter examines the purpose of clinical trial decentralization and the critical use of technology to recruit and interact with trial participants in remote sites before it identifies the incentives of private equity firms in directing digital clinical trials. The chapter identifies social and economic tensions between the maximization of profits and safety surrounding the production of scientific evidence. It concludes that private equity firms digitizing clinical trials might aggravate the problems of data opacity that characterize the industry, thereby undermining the safety, efficacy—and accessibility—of drugs.

Note:

Funding Information: None.

Conflict of Interests: None.

Keywords: Clinical trials, digital clinical trials, private equity, health equity, access, medicine, descentralized clinical trials, financialization of health care, financialization, AI, transparency

JEL Classification: I11, I14, I18,