Disclosure of Clinical Trial Data: Why Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act Should Be Restored

Clinical trial data generated during the FDA drug approval process can be very valuable. While patients and doctors desperately need this information to make informed choices about medical treatment, drug sponsors strive to keep this resource secret to ensure their ability to profit from their own research. In the wake of the controversy over antidepressant use in children, both the public and Congress have called for the disclosure of all clinical trial data. However, rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach that could harm the development of new drugs, this iBrief argues that Congress should address the issue of trial data disclosure by restoring the proper balance to Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act

Bearing servicing tool

A tool for removing and/or replacing bearings in situ is presented. The tool is comprised of a brace having a first end adapted to engage a first end of the bearing housing, and a second end adapted to engage a second end of the bearing housing. If the two ends of the bearing housing are different in configuration, then the respective ends of the brace are configured accordingly. An elongate guide member integral with the brace has two parts, each projecting endwise from a respective end of the brace. A removable pressure plate can be mounted on either part of the guide member for longitudinal movement therealong and has first and second ends of different configurations adapted to engage the first and second ends of the bearing. A threaded-type drive is cooperative between the guide and the pressure plate to move the pressure plate longitudinally along the guide and apply a force to the bearing, either to remove the bearing from its housing, or to emplace a new bearing in the housing

Aid, Conditionality, and War Economies

When natural resource revenues provide an important motive and/or means for armed conflict, the transition from war peace faces three challenges: (i) ensuring that the benefits and costs of natural resource exploitation are distributed so as to ease rather than exacerbate social tensions; (ii) channeling revenues to peaceful and productive purposes; and (iii) promoting accountability and transparency in natural resource management. Aid conditionality can help to address these challenges provided that three prerequisites are met: (i) there are domestic parties with sufficient authority and legitimacy to strike and implement aid-for-peace bargains; (ii) donor governments and agencies make peace their top priority, putting this ahead of other geopolitical, commercial, and institutional goals; and (iii) the aid ‘carrot’ is substantial enough to provide an incentive for pro-peace policies. Case studies of Cambodia, Angola, and Afghanistan illustrate both the scope and limitations of peace conditionality in such settings.

From Natural Resources to Natural Assets

This article examines the scope for strategies to build natural assets in the hands of low-income individuals and communities. Natural assets include sources of raw materials such as forests and fisheries, and the airsheds, lands, and water bodies that provide "environmental sinks" for the disposal of wastes. These resources become assets when people have rights to access their benefits. Four strategies for natural asset-building are identified: investment to increase the total stock of natural assets; redistribution to transfer natural assets from others; internalization to increase the ability of the poor to capture benefits generated by their stewardship of natural assets; and appropriation to establish rights for the poor to open-access resources. Building on the democratic principle that all individuals have equal rights to clean air, clean water, and other common heritage resources, these strategies simultaneously can advance the goals of poverty reduction, environmental protection, and environmental justice.