Walk into any pharmacy in the United States and you will immediately be surrounded by thousands of medications. They vary in size, color, strength and price. Some are easily available over the counter, while pharmacists keep others under lock and key. Despite the vast assortment available, they all have one process in common. Clinical studies. Before you can take them for headaches, hypertension, and hypoglycemia, they all go through the rigorous clinical trial process. However, these studies have often led to the exploitation of vulnerable populations around the world. As with all studies involving human participants, the ethical implications of clinical trials are now under greater scrutiny. Carl Elliot investigates the role of American participants in clinical trials in “Guinea-Pigging: Healthy human topics for drug safety trials are in demand.” But is it a life?” His article highlights one of the key reasons why trials have begun to move overseas. As a result of the globalization of clinical trials, several problems have arisen and the medical community has begun to take notice. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Ethical and Scientific Implications of the Globalization of Clinical Research,” Dr. Seth W. Glickman and his collaborators delve into the growing trend of globalization and its consequences. Dr. Harold Shapiro and Eric M. Meslin perform the same level of scrutiny, but with greater attention to trial development, in “Ethical Issues in the Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials in Developing Countries.” The Boston Globe's Christopher Rowland presents the globalization rationale in "Clinical trials seen as overseas Tufts study cites lack of US subjects." Finally Sandhya Srinivasan and...... middle of paper ...... companies in developing countries, no studies have been conducted on diseases such as tuberculosis that disproportionately affect the populations of these countries. In contrast, we found a number of studies conducted in developing countries for conditions such as allergic rhinitis and overactive bladder. (“Ethical and scientific implications of the globalization of clinical research” 819) This is a finding on the localization of pharmaceutical companies that finance trials. Typically these companies are based in wealthy Western nations and, as a result, test drugs for conditions and diseases that affect the Western world. Participants are once again exploited as they gain little to no benefit from participating in the study. While it may seem like the problems associated with clinical trials are too big to solve, with a few reforms everyone can benefit.