In sick economy, many taking part in medical trial$

The Boston Herald reports:

Down-and-out Bay Staters are turning themselves into human guinea pigs — making easy money in a tough economy by subjecting themselves to needles, electrodes and never-before-tested drugs — but possibly risking their health, experts say.

“It’s all I do,” said Morris, 50, a regular in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area who says he’s taken part in more than 100 clinical trials since 2002. “They pay well and I enjoy doing it. . . . This stuff isn’t going to test itself.”

Nationwide, the number of human test subjects registered by Acurian, a medical test recruiting firm with offices in Watertown, jumped 35 percent between 2007 and 2010, according to company spokesman Scott Connor. That’s the period when the country’s jobless rate soared from 4.6 percent to 9.4 percent.

Hope and change.