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Today's (Sunday May 16) New York Times contains part 1 of 2 of a long expose article (two full pages) on fees paid by drug companies to physicians to conduct clinical trials or to refer patients to clinical trials, and cites abuses which this practice has led to or could lead to. A few points raised by the article are: Cost limits due to managed care have stimulated drug companies to increase their product lines as a way of increasing profits. Clinical trials conducted by universities, as was done in the past, were inadequate to handle the volume of new drugs to be tested. Thus practicing physicians have been enrolled to obtain test subjects and do the testing. A conflict of interest has thereby been created between service to the patient and service to the drug companies. This has resulted in some inclusion in drug studies of inappropriate patients, and in conduct of trials by physicians who did not have expertise in the area of study. There is no mention in the article of Parkinson's disease. However, I have seen on the internet several web pages of practicing neurologists who do clinical trials, and I would assume some involvement. Phil Tompkins Hoboken NJ age 61/dx 1990