Research Ethics Roundup: Why Tuberculosis Is Still a Threat, A New Partnership to Help Rejected NIH Proposals, and More

This week’s Research Ethics Roundup examines new findings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on juvenile animal studies for pediatric clinical development, the research community’s response to Apple’s ResearchKit, and why experts think more funding is needed for tuberculosis research.

6946441375_7096ec9c90_zThis Disease Can Still Get You Quarantined For Months — And It’s On The Rise: In this piece for the Huffington Post, Lauren Weber reports on the efforts to eradicate tuberculosis, the number one “infectious killer” in the world. The World Health Organization says $1.3 billion is needed for additional research on tuberculosis, “which some experts call ‘airborne cancer’ because of the way it slowly ravages its victims.”

FDA Shares Views on Juvenile Animal Studies for Oncology Drugs: In this Regulatory Focus article, Michael Mezher reports on findings from the FDA “that studies comparing the effects of drugs in juvenile animal populations against their effects in adult animals are generally not useful in guiding pediatric clinical development, especially if such studies delay the launch of a clinical trial.” FDA’s Office of Hematology and Oncology Products also found juvenile animal studies were not helpful in determining dose selection.

13342031524_674eb92029_mIn Its First Year, Has Apple’s ResearchKit Revolutionized Medical Research?: Christina Farr of Fast Company magazine, interviewed researchers and found Apple’s ResearchKit is providing rich data sets and easier patient enrollment. However, critics are concerned “participants in these mobile-based studies tend to skew young and male.”

New Funding Matchmaker Will Cater to NIH Rejects: Kelly Servick of Science highlights how the new Online Partnership to Accelerate Research (OnPAR) will allow researchers to share their “rejected NIH proposals” with other possible funders. OnPAR received funding from the NIH. Sherry Mills of the NIH’s Office of Extramural Research told Science: “There are more meritorious applications than we can fund. This would keep the science going and offer the applicants an opportunity to continue doing the research important to us.”