Medical experts will meet at the World Health Organization to determine which experimental Ebola drugs to prioritize and how to proceed with those clinical trials. The urgency for an effective Ebola treatment means that medical experts will need to figure out how to design studies that account for both time and efficacy. One standard clinical trial design, giving half of the participants the investigational product and the other half placebo, is seen by some as unethical under Ebola’s circumstances. Martin Friede, in charge of working on Ebola drugs for WHO, says that instead of using a placebo in tests, researchers can sift through historical records or compare what’s been at other sites. Other ideas include having a large treatment and small comparison groups, or giving people varying doses.
Many clinical trials are in the works or ongoing, many using different strategies. Researchers at Oxford University are not using placebos in their trials, while U.S. scientists working with Liberian health researchers will stick to the standard trial method and include placebos. Although these experimental drugs will have some safety testing most have not been used in humans. Time will tell whether or not any of these potential Ebola treatments prove to be safe and effective. If not, a different approach may be necessary to create such a drug. Nancy Kass, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University says, “I think this is a time, as is often true in deep ethical challenges, where thinking a little outside the box might be the answer that works best for everyone.”
