**Current Review of Medical Research in Developing Countries: A Case Study from Egypt**

Sherif M. Shehata, Nehal M. ElMashad and Azza M. Hassan

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/67282

#### **Abstract**

It is amazing to see how medical science has progressed. Medical research is now crossnational and cross-cultural, the relentless progress of globalization poses complex ethical questions for those wishing to do medical research in developing countries. In developing countries, poverty, endemic diseases, and a low level of investment in health care systems influence both the ease of performing and the selection of trials that can benefit the people of the countries. In this chapter, we present an overview of medical research situation in developing countries with critique of different clinical trials that was conducted in Egypt after review. Egypt has 41 universities and 94 health related medical schools. There are 24 faculties of medicine with up to 34 departments in each. Clinical research is an essential mandate for getting Master, Doctorate Degrees, and for promotion of faculty members. In Egypt, the Profession Ethics Regulations issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) No. 238/2003 was endorsed and maintained in Law 71/2009. Beside these regulations, more than 56 Institutional Review Board (IRB) have been registered. The Egyptian Network of Research Ethics Committees (ENREC) was created in 2008. Yet, in the absence of robust legislative constraints, there is no clear way to avoid violations. Our experience in Tanta Faculty of Medicine is also highlighted in this chapter.

**Keywords:** medical research, medical ethics, developing countries, Egypt, Tanta Faculty of Medicine, Tanta REC

## **1. Introduction**

It is amazing to see how medical science has progressed. It has only been a hundred years and the world has gone from the discovery of penicillin to the complete sequencing of the human genome. This is the "M*edical Research*."

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Many researches are driven by economic or academic interests that may or may not reflect the needs of the host country. One critic of such trials is the need to test new drugs for malaria, sleeping sickness, and Chagas disease that people in poor countries suffer from rather than on diseases of interest primarily to the developed nations.

There is also the delicate matter of double standards, which highlights the need to develop an ethical model for research and training partnerships between developed and developing countries employing an approach with long-term advantage for the latter or both partners at least in an equal manner.
