Did you know that you can earn money from participating in clinical trials?
There are many paid clinical trials for new medications and devices that are currently paying participants thousands of dollars.
Of course, you might have many questions when it comes to participating in clinical trials for money.
There are many clinical trials that you can participate in to earn money. Every clinical trial is different and the compensation will depend on some of the factors we will cover here later. Before we dive into the money, let’s get a better understanding of what clinical trials are and what you can expect.
This article will guide you through what you need to know about clinical trials, what to consider before signing up and how to find the best clinical trial for you.
What are clinical trials?
Before deciding to participate in paid clinical trials, it’s important to understand exactly what clinical trials are and how they work.
Anytime there is a new medication or a medical device that needs to be approved by the FDA, clinical trials have to take place. Think of all of the medications that are available today, these all had to undergo trials to make sure that they are safe and effective.
New medications have to go through multiple phases and can take many years before they are available to be used and prescribed. One of the most difficult parts of bringing a medication to market is not having enough participants to collect the data that is needed for FDA approval.
This is why pharmaceutical companies pay participants to take part in their clinical studies. Clinical trials are funded by pharmaceutical companies that are looking for a specific number of participants in order to show that their medication or device is effective and safe to be used. Once enough data is collected on these new medications they can be presented to the FDA for their approval.
Before entering into a clinical study you must qualify to be a part of the trial. There are different eligibility requirements that you must meet. For example, some clinical studies might require that you have a medical diagnosis and other trials might require that you are healthy. If you are looking to participate in a clinical trial for high blood pressure you might be expected to have high blood pressure in order to prove that the medication is effective.
However, if you are one of the first people trying a new medication you might be expected to be relatively healthy so that they can assess whether the new treatment is safe to be used in healthy individuals.
During a clinical trial, participants are asked to follow the study protocol which is like a guidebook for the new medication that is being trialed. You may be asked to take the medication or use a new device and report your symptoms as well as complete different procedures.
Some of these procedures might involve bloodwork, physical exams and different assessments or other tests. These procedures and assessments will depend on what the medication is designed to do. If the medication is for high blood pressure, you might be expected to wear a blood pressure monitor or to record your blood pressure throughout the day. For other studies you might be expected to check your blood sugar during the day if you are participating in a diabetic clinical trial for example.
Which trials pay the most?
At this point you might be wondering which clinical trials pay the most and how you can sign up.
Clinical trials will pay you to participate in their trial based on how involved the clinical trial is and some of the procedures or foreseen risk of participating.
Some clinical trials are observational in nature which means that they will monitor or track something in specific without giving you the medication or a device to trial. For example, over the course of the clinical trial you may be asked to get bloodwork done once a month if you have a specific diagnosis that is traceable in your blood. This will give the researchers information on how these blood markers are related to your disease process and in the future this information can be used to create new therapies for this illness or disease.
In this example since you are not receiving a new medication there is less risk of having side effects and this type of trial may pay less for your participation.
In clinical trials that are first in human meaning that you will be within the first group of people to try the medication, you may receive the highest amount of compensation. That is because these medications are new and not a lot of people have tried them in the past. Therefore there might be a greater risk of having unforeseeable side effects. In these trials which are in the first phase of clinical trials, healthy individuals are asked to participate. This is because they would like to make sure that this medication is safe to use before it is used on patients with the disease or illness.
What should you consider before participating in a clinical trial?
In order to find the best clinical trial for yourself you must decide whether you will participate in healthy clinical trials or if you have a diagnosis you will have to participate in a clinical trial for your diagnosis.
You must also fully understand the clinical trial before you agree to participate. This means that you must understand what the medication is, how it works and whether it can potentially help your disease and if it is better than what is already out in the market.
The best way to approach this is to talk to your doctor and make sure that they agree on your participation in the trial. If you are already taking medication for your diagnosis your doctor will be the best person to guide you as to whether you should join the clinical trial.
By fully understanding the clinical trial and what the medication is you will be aware of what to expect when taking the medication, what changes you might see and what some of the possible risks and benefits are of trialing this medication.
You will also have to decide on whether a clinical trial is right for you based on the involvement level that you would need to participate in the trial. Depending on the clinical trial some trials will have you come into the clinic on a weekly basis sometimes a monthly basis and other times these visits may be remote through the computer.
What to do next?
If you’re interested in participating in a clinical trial for money, you should first talk to your doctor and make sure that they agree with your decision to participate.
Next you can find a clinical trial at clinicaltrials.gov, where you can search for trials based on the diagnosis that you would like to find the clinical trial for or clinical trials for healthy individuals.
Once you have decided on the clinical trial that you would like to participate in, you can visit the clinical site, meet with the staff and have their research physician answer any of your questions before you sign consent.
Meeting with the clinical site is the best way to ensure that you fully understand what is involved and what is required from you when participating in a clinical trial.
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