2. Do the clinical trials in the United States. Even though it will certainly be more expensive and time-consuming, you’ll feel as if you’re living up to the part of the Hippocratic Oath that instructed you to”prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.” Dr. Abraham Hassan knew he couldn’t put off the decision any longer. AH Biotech, the Bound Brook, New Jersey-based company started up by this psychiatrist-turned-entrepreneur, had developed a novel drug that seemed to promise long-term relief from panic attacks. If it gained FDA approval, it would be the company’s first product. It was now time for large-scale clinical trials. But where should AH Biotech conduct those tests?

David Berger, who headed up research and development, was certain he already knew the answer to that question: Albania.”Look, doing these trials in Albania will be quicker, easier, and a lot cheaper than doing them in the States,” he pointed out.”What’s not to like?”

Dr. Hassan had to concede Berger’s arguments were sound. If they did trials in the United States, AH Biotech would spend considerable time and money advertising for patients and then finding physicians who’d be willing to serve as clinical trial investigators. Rounding up U.S. doctors prepared to take on that job was getting increasingly difficult. They just didn’t want to take time out of their busy practices to do the testing, not to mention all the recordkeeping such a study entailed