Get paid for medical trials

Ok so this is a non-internet based one but it is a good earner. If you're someone who works flexible shifts or has time to spare – this is great if you are travelling for example and want to earn some extra cash. If you're not afraid of needles, having blood taken and being given new drugs that probably haven't been tested on humans before then why not give it a shot?

Alternatively if that doesn't appeal there are often smaller research trials, involving psychological research that you can take part in that may not involve any drugs at all.

High demand for volunteers

Recently our contact has received details of numerous highly paid medical trials from LCG Bioscience. They are currently recruiting for a trial with a participation fee of nearly £5000! A couple of months ago they were recruiting for a trial paying nearly £2000. See below for their contact details or if you wish to get the study reference number please contact us and we can pass it on to you.

Medical Research Trials

New drugs are being developed all the time and have to be tested on healthy volunteers before they can be marketed, to make sure they are safe. Here at Cash Ninja we have a contact who has done several medical trials over a number of years with one company and to our knowledge he's still ok (although some people might disagree).

There are a number of companies who conduct medical trials here in the UK and we suspect that there may well be in other countries too. Generally they want healthy individuals who don't drink or smoke too much but sometimes they run trials that have specific requirements, eg asthma sufferers, women on the contraceptive pill, etc.

Compensation

You are compensated for your time, anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds per medical trial, plus they pay an allowance for your travelling expenses.

Importantly the compensation you receive is based on the number of visits you have to make to a unit, the duration of any stays on site and the length of the clinical trial. The compensation is not based on the risk of the drug being tested.

medical trials can involve a lengthy stay (2 weeks or longer) on a research unit, or a number of day visits spread over several weeks, or something in between. The longer stays can feel a bit claustrophobic after a while but if you are travelling a long distance to get to the unit then they are ideal as you have very little toing and froing to do. The units will normally have internet, dvds, satellite tv and various other forms of entertainment to make the stay less boring. For a lengthy stay taking a book or two to read is highly recommended as well.

Phase 1

Most paid medical trials that require volunteers are phase 1. That means that the drug has been tested in animals to make sure it is safe before being given to humans but that it has not been tested on humans before.

All details of what is being tested are explained before you give your consent, including expected side effects and you should have the option to withdraw at any time, should you wish.

You can only do 1 medical trial every 3-4 months (in the UK) and your details are recorded onto a database to make sure you aren't trying to get round this. I believe there is also a limit of 12 clinical trials in total that any individual can do in their lifetime. Here are a couple of websites for medical research units in Cambridge:

LCG Bioscience – these are the guys who our contact has done clinical trials with
GlaxoSmithKline – run clinical trials in Cambridge and London. Our contact is registered with them but has never actually done a medical trial with them.

If you are going to register with LCG then drop Cash Ninja an email and we can give you our contacts details to include so if you complete a clinical trial successfully then you get paid £lots and he gets £100. You don't have to of course but by the same token it won't cost you anything if you do either and it saves us paying him for his time.

An example of a medical trial

The clinical trial started at the beginning of March 2008 and finished at the end of April 2008. It consisted of admission to the unit on a Monday evening, then the drug being administered on the Tuesday morning. Following some blood tests, ECGs and urine tests the volunteers were kept under observation (and fed) throughout the day then released the next morning.

After a week away from the unit the volunteers returned and were kept in for an entire week, being given the drug every morning and having blood tests and other tests every Tuesday. The volunteers then had to return to the unit every morning, for the next 4 weeks to be given the drug. On Tuesdays they had to stay until lunch time to undergo tests. The travelling was easy for our contact as it was a 20 minute journey in either direction each day. Some volunteers had an hour and a half round trip to do each day. At the end of the medical trial, having suffered no side effects our contact was paid just under £2600 for his efforts.

Other types of research trial

Here in Cambridge there are numerous pieces of research being carried out in conjunction with the University and Addenbrokes teaching hospital. The pay ranges from a few £s to a few hundred and recently a lot seem to involve MRI scans. The most common place we have seen these advertised is on Gumtree. If you have a teaching hospital in your area or a university involved with medical research or psychological research contact them to find out how you can get involved in research trials.