Akira's Div III / Senior Thesis Abstract

License to Medicate: Clinical Trials, La Reforma, and the Pursuit of Biopolitical Citizenship in Puerto Rico
Akira Céspedes Pérez's Division III Abstract 

To what effect are clinical trials being run in Puerto Rico? My experience as a study coordinator for Phase III and Phase IV clinical trials in the island, coupled with interviews with different actors in the biomedical research industry and juxtaposed with existing primary and secondary literature, provided a perspective into the current evolution of trials in the island as well as how Puerto Rico fits into global clinical trials. Clinical trials have been increasingly exported across the globe to regions where physicians and patients will be easier and more affordable to recruit. Puerto Rico is one of those regions. Many socio-cultural issues as well as recent public health policies have contributed to the implementation of trials in the island, yet the established international guidelines do not address the local political and social infrastructures that might encourage patients to enroll in clinical trials. Further, patients’ active pursuit and protection of their biopolitical citizenship—a citizenship which traditional concept of “rights” and social classifications has been greatly influenced by biological and biomedical beliefs and categorizations, and is many times assessed by local government-supported (health) measures—complicate for Puerto Rico the clinical trial ethical discourse.

If you are interested in Akira's thesis, contact her at cespe014@umn.edu.

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