The story I am about to tell you is horrific and gathered from various news accounts of the event that have been published over the months since it happened.

Last March, six healthy young men volunteered at Northwick Park Hospital, in London as participants in a clinical trial for a drug called TGN1412, designed to treat leukemia, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. According to the men, they were told by doctors there would be no serious short-term or long-term side effects. They were each paid £2,000. Within hours, the worst that could happen did, and the men were plunged into a nightmare beyond anything they could have imagined.

The headaches began, followed by convulsions, bloating, organ failure and comas. The men came to be known as the Elephant Men because of the swollen faces and chests they suffered. One of the men suffered gangrene -- all his toes and three of his fingers were amputated. He also suffered heart failure, kidney failure, pneumonia, septicaemia and liver failure. Recently, another participant was told he might be developing cancer as a result of the drug trial. All have been told to expect early death.

One recent news story quotes one of the participants in the tragic clinical trial in his account of the events after the drug was administered. Nav Modi told reporters, "It was like a huge, heavy foot was being pressed down on my head. I started moaning and crying, but the doctor just told me to calm down. He said it would go away. I begged him to do something. I told him the pain was killing me." Then he began vomiting, fainted, and stopped breathing. Similar effects were being experienced among the other five participants.

I suppose in anticipation of legal action, German drug maker TeGenero AG, which produced TGN1412, has reportedly filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month -- which is what rankles me the most at the moment. You cannot turn back the hands of time and undo what has been done but -- if the bad guys are not seriously held accountable for what happened to these young men, and why it happened, and the policy on how clinical trials can be conducted revised, then the scales of justice are not balanced and justice is not blind. I would think the researchers who conduct clinical trials would be the ones standing out front speaking up the loudest, because otherwise the expectation of anyone volunteering to participate in clinical trials in the future might be futile.