IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/indinn/v32y2025i4p476-499.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The price of mistrust: the impact of a medical ethics scandal on scientific capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Fry
  • Shannon Tran

Abstract

This study investigates how negative news alleging ethical misconduct in clinical trials can hinder scientific development in emerging economies. We examine a 2000 exposé surrounding a clinical trial conducted in Northern Nigeria, leading to decades of community mistrust in foreign pharmaceutical companies. By comparing scientific output of researchers in affected and less affected regions, we find a significant decline in publication growth, particularly for medical researchers. An exploration of the mechanisms suggests that eroded community support and participation in research and reduced international collaboration contributed to this slowdown. This study highlights the importance of the science-community relationship in fostering scientific development. Our findings imply that a ’social li- cense to operate’ grounded in community trust is essential for scientific progress, and that future research on the determinants of scientific capacity in developing countries should consider community attitudes and involvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Fry & Shannon Tran, 2025. "The price of mistrust: the impact of a medical ethics scandal on scientific capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 476-499, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:indinn:v:32:y:2025:i:4:p:476-499
    DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2024.2421933
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13662716.2024.2421933
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13662716.2024.2421933?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:indinn:v:32:y:2025:i:4:p:476-499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIAI20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.