Canadians doing US trials?

[vagabondess]

Are there any Canadians who do US trials? I am a Canadian and am taking an extended trip to the US and am hoping to do some trials. I have met a few people in Canadian clinical trials who have mentioned that they did some clinical trials in the US

One guy said he filled out either a w-5 or w-7 tax form or soing

Anyone know anything about all this?

[mike]

Hmm it all depends on the clinic really, like Celerion in Tempe Arizona is very lax, they don't ask for a social security card, they only want an ID card or drivers' license; they used to have a requirement that people were local/lived within 300 miles of the clinic, but I don't think that that has been really enforced in recent history.
In fact, the majority of study participants are illegal aliens, all relevant study information is also given in Spanish as many of the people don't speak a lick of English.

But all the clinics I went to in Texas (Covance, Worldwide, PPD, Icon) required an SS card. But then none of those clinics enforced a residency requirement; they did not usually care where you were coming from.

I'm sure there is some kind of provision for Canadians to satisfy the IRS and their need for a pound (or so) of your flesh; soing to serve the purpose of an SS card.

You might try contacting the IRS itself, they are a new, nicer IRS now and you would probably find someone who could tell you what you need to do. And also contact any specific clinic you think you might want to go to. What part of the U.S. are you planning on travelling through?

[vagabondess]

I called one place so far (in Florida) and they said they don't care about me being Canadian. Thank you very much for your response! I'll call the IRS today. It makes sense a lot of the people doing studies would be illegal aliens. In Canada the trial places seem to be much stricter.

I am going to be going through all the Southern states, and willing to travel for trials. So Florida, Texas, and California are the states I hope to spend the most time in!

Can you recommend any more names of major clinics in those states (that you know of)? So far I have found Covance and PPD but sometimes internet research can be hard haha!

[mike]

Florida I don't know anything about I have never done a study there but in Texas I have done a lot,
Covance in Dallas usually has some good studies but they usually have a long lag time between screening and check-in so plan to spend at least a couple weeks sitting around there.
PPD always has attractive high paying studies but they can be picky with screening.
Worldwide may not always have big money studies but they usually have a $1500-$3000 study that you can do, and they are much easier to get into.
Icon is a nice place, and I have had good luck getting into studies there too.

You can try Celerion in Tempe AZ on the way from Texas to California, they usually pay on the low side and getting in a study can be a pain because of their phone-in screening process and because they often assign a lot of alternates.

[vagabondess]

Thank you so very much for your response! I remember it was hard enough just finding all the places in one city, in Canada so I think you may have saved me just a lot of time researching

Well I certainly like being a lab rat. I like the freedom I get. I hear it's more common to be a full time lab rat in the states! Also I noticed many of them pay more in the states, then again they are taxed. Also most of them seem to be phase one studies. I've only done one of those before and it ended badly

[mike]

Yeah that's all I have ever done is phase 1 studies, they pay more than the other stuff, some have been much better than others but I can't say I ever had one end badly.

[vagabondess]

that gives me hope!
here the phase one studies pay less

[veteran2]

Don't tell b guards you intend to do a study as you will be turned back without proper tax registration. Also if they catch you lying or feel you are lying and are denied entry to the US you will be permanently banned less getting an expensive waiver which I think is around 1K and even then it's really just an application. The US b agents are hard asses in general but are worse with people they suspect may go underground(not that any Canadian would unless they were a criminal or trying to be an actor or soing like that).

[puntkicker]

If it makes anyone feel better, I'm BANNED from Canada 🙂 As the bikini chick member might say, they were racist against Americans 😉