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Walt Bogdanich

Before a drug company can run a clinical trial, it has to get approval from an ethics review board. That work used to be done by nonprofits, but today much of it is bankrolled by private equity →

Walt Bogdanich

Private-equity investors can wield huge influence over drug trials, from recruiting subjects to vetting patient protections. Some for-profit ethics boards also have corporate ties to drugmakers.

Walt Bogdanich

Last year, Novo Nordisk wanted to try treating liver disease with the main ingredient in Ozempic, its diabetes and weight-loss drug. It used an ethics panel partly owned by its own corporate parent.

Walt Bogdanich

Novo has increasingly turned to that review board since becoming its corporate sibling. Bioethicists were stunned to learn that the board, meant to be a watchdog, had approved drug trials for its owner.

Walt Bogdanich

An ethics panel is largely a black box, offering no effective way to judge the quality of individual reviews — or whether they might have been compromised by intertwined corporate interests.