Albert Kligman was born in 1916 as the son of immigrants to the U.S. His rabbi gave him the financial backing to attend college. He was a scholar-athlete, earning both Ph.D. and MD degrees. As an undergraduate, he was the captain of the gymnastics team.
He decided to specialize in dermatology and developed a stellar reputation for scientific analysis of common problems such as athlete’s foot, dandruff, acne, and wrinkles. His work led to funding from major pharmaceutical and chemical companies and the Department of Defense. He is perhaps best known for the development of Retin-A, a treatment for acne, wrinkles, and sun damage. He became quite rich from his dermatological solutions.
When he was asked to see if he could help control athlete’s foot issues at a prison in Philadelphia, he became aware of a gold mine for clinical trials. Over 23 years, Kligman conducted experiments on prisoners to test treatments for various dermatological conditions. These trials required that they be exposed to various chemicals or pathogens to create the condition. Then they would be treated with experimental medications or creams. He also tested psychoactive drugs for the Department of Defense. Prisoners would be paid small sums of money to agree to treatment.
Those who participated often had serious health issues as a result. A lawsuit brought against Kligman and the sponsors was dismissed due to the statute of limitation resulting from the delay in the appearance of the medical conditions. His subjects were often poorer members of society with little support.
Kligman was denounced for his unethical practices. He was barred by the FDA for a period of time.
Just imagine whether such a practice could be accepted in our society today. Are there those who would support the use of undocumented immigrants for medical trials? Might there be those who would argue that the protection of those in clinical trials contributes to unnecessary delays to medical advances? What about those who would argue that clinical trials should have no government oversight since this would be government power not included in our Constitution?
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“We slow the progress of science today for all sorts of ethical reasons. Biomedicine could advance much faster if we abolished our rules on human experimentation in clinical trials, as Nazi researchers did.”–Paul Nitze