Clinical Drug Studies: Ways to make money

[jeffrey]

If you are willing to be a human lab rat, it is a way to make extra money and it pays fairly well - thousands of dollars for 30 day studies.

Drug companies are constantly looking for healthy people to participate in drug studies. The results from these studies are used to help researchers determine if the drug is safe and effective for the general population. The clinical drug trials usually requires the individual to go to the clinic and stay there from anywhere from 3 days to 30 days while the drug is tested.

Another way to make money is to participate on Phase 2 and beyond studies. Phase 2 studies are where they test the drug on patients that have the ailment that the drug is supposed to help. While these studies will pay money to participate in them, the pay tends to be much lower than the phase 1 studies. Phase 2 studies can often be located by looking for advertisements of current studies in local papers.

[southerndoc]

During residency, we had some really sick people from a drug that was being tested in a nearby area.

I really would think long and hard before enrolling into any clinical trial.

[disneysteve]

southerndoc makes a good point but keep in mind that not all studies are on experimental drugs. There are also studies that are "post-market" studies on drugs already FDA-approved and on the market. Sometimes, a company may be trying to get additional indications for a medicine. For example, a blood pressure med might be going for an indication for use in heart failure.

There are also market research programs where a company may just be looking to interview patients with a certain condition. No treatment is involved in those programs. The pay isn't huge but you might get $25 or $30 for a one-hour interview which isn't too shabby.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Someone I know participated in a study for two medicines she was already using. I think it was something about the timing of the doses that was being studied. It was good pay, too. $2000, I think. It was rather long term, though.

[disneysteve]

Sometimes, your doctor may be able to put you in a study for common meds. You may or may not get paid but at the very least, you'll get your prescription for free during the study.

[disneysteve]

Just to show you what's out there, I just got an e-mail from a company I deal with. They are asking for any patient referrals I can offer for a survey on psoriasis. Patients will be paid $20 for completing a 20-minute online survey. Plus I get an incentive payment for each patient I refer.

I get mail like that fairly regularly.

[southerndoc]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Just to show you what's out there, I just got an e-mail from a company I deal with. They are asking for any patient referrals I can offer for a survey on psoriasis. Patients will be paid $20 for completing a 20-minute online survey. Plus I get an incentive payment for each patient I refer.

I get mail like that fairly regularly.

I hope you get patient permission before referring your patients for a survey. I would be royally pissed if my doc gave my name, address, or any medical information to a third party or even sent me a survey. I very much prefer my medical privacy.

[asmom]

You don't always have to be experimented on. When I was a research nurse, one of the biggest studies I was working with was a registry and we paid money both for the subjects with the disease and healthy controls. It only involved asking a few questions about their family history and their current level of functioning. The control interviews paid $50 and took less than an hour. Look for those.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by southerndoc

I hope you get patient permission before referring your patients for a survey. I would be royally pissed if my doc gave my name, address, or any medical information to a third party or even sent me a survey. I very much prefer my medical privacy.

Absolutely! I would never give out patient info without the patient's permission. That would be a definite HIPAA violation.

Typically, I ignore these requests because they are generally for conditions that I don't treat. If I got one that applied, though, I would discuss it with the patient first for sure.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Hey, I just remembered I did participate in a study by questionnaire less than a year ago. I got a Visa(?) gift card for it.

[supersaversam]

If you live near a university there are plenty of other paid experiments in various subjects such as economics, group theory, and even testing video conferencing. I did this a lot when I was in college and it was usually fun, and they paid in cash.

I don't think I'll be the subject of any medical testing though.

[coolavtar]

I don't think of participating in any medical testing its just a total waste of your time and efforts.

[Casebusters]

Originally Posted by supersaversam

If you live near a university there are plenty of other paid experiments in various subjects such as economics, group theory, and even testing video conferencing. I did this a lot when I was in college and it was usually fun, and they paid in cash.

I don't think I'll be the subject of any medical testing though.

Is there a website for that?
That sounds better than something that may hurt you!

[disneysteve]

I got an offer for another patient recruitment study for a particular medication. All I had to do was mail a letter with an online survey link to patients of mine who take that medication. Each patient who completed the survey received $10 and I got $25. It just so happened that one of my employees takes the medication so I got her to do the survey and mailed out 6 others. I don't know yet if any of them completed the survey as this just happened last week.

[BillK]

This post is interesting to read. After we received a leukemia diagnosis with a grim set of news, we were just happy that there was some experimental treatments going on. After signing a small book of release forms. We paid everything except the drug cost. It was not cheap. Over a year later we are still paying bills not to mention thousands of miles on the car and missed work.

The goods news is it brought a remission to the leukemia that the first hospital said could not happen. But getting paid....no, let us say that we are happy that we have a few more years then previous for them to come up with the next best thing.

[donlat3]

Sign me up!

[paymydebt]

This seems high risk especially if found that the drug is not safe...then wouldn't be worth all the money in the world if your health is at risk.

[MTLaura]

Originally Posted by jeffrey

Another way to make money is to participate on Phase 2 and beyond studies. Phase 2 studies are where they test the drug on patients that have the ailment that the drug is supposed to help. While these studies will pay money to participate in them, the pay tends to be much lower than the phase 1 studies. Phase 2 studies can often be located by looking for advertisements of current studies in local papers.

Does any of the testing facilities test treatments if you do not live near the facility? I would be interested in testing for Multiple Sclerosis or Glaucoma, but have never seen any ads for medical studies in ID or UT. The Dept of VA contacted me about my MS. I filled out a long survey and have not heard back from them. That was over 6 mths ago. No, they don't pay

If ever there was a pill for MS, I'd be the first in line to try it and I'd do it for free!!
IDLaura

[Mike75]

Clinical studies are sort of double sided swords. If you are lucky, you will be fine by the end of the study. But many times, such studies can make you really sick.

I would recommend this way only if you are desperate for some money.

[PaydayLoner]

Originally Posted by Casebusters

Is there a website for that?
That sounds better than something that may hurt you!

I just noticed this old question in the thread, and didn't see an answer. One place that I've done tests/surveys for is Stanford's Behavioral Lab online. I can't post links yet, but search for "GSB Behavioral Lab" in quotes.

Most of the test/survey thingies are for a drawing, but they'll usually have one for a guaranteed $5 Amazon gift card posted at least once a week or so. They're just short simple online survey-type things you can do online, maybe ten or fifteen minutes long, asking for your reaction to something, decision-making studies, that kind of thing.