The professional guinea pig : Big Pharma and the risky world of human subjects / Roberto Abadie.

Durham [N.C.] ; London : Duke University Press, 2010.

xii, 184 pages ; 25 cm

Introduction : a guinea pig's wage: risk, body commodification, and the ethics of pharmaceutical research in America -- Guinea-pigging : the in/formal economy of phase I clinical trials in Philadelphia -- Market recruitment, identity, and resistance among professional guinea pigs -- Local knowledge and risk management among professional guinea pigs -- Big Pharma and HIV clinical trials: a case study -- Strategies of survival : HIV clinical trials and the fight for their lives -- From prisoners to professionals : a brief history of the clinical-trial enterprise -- Ethics and the exploitation of the poor in clinical trials research -- Conclusion : living in/off the mild torture economy as trial subjects -- Epilogue : following up : Robert Helms, Frank Little, Dave Onion, and Spam one last time.

Includes bibliographical references and index.