Celerion Review and suspicion

[labrat0000]

Shedding some light on Celerion in Lincoln. I am writing about my expereinces as well as sharing suspicions of "hand picking" study participants.

I live in the area and have participated in several studies, know several people who do studies, and some of the employees who have worked at Celerion.

COMPENSATION
Celerion is paying less then it used to. I did a 16 day study a year ago and it paid 5500. Now 4 4nights with 28 returns is 5200. They also pay, on average, a few hundred less than other clinics.

RETURNS
The returns at Celerion on average are about 4 hours. and you are required to stay regardless if you are the first or last number.

FOOD
Their food regiment is also very strict and it is not very good. This is relative, I know, but you will understand when you have to eat a high-fat meal or some of their dinners.

WIFI
The wifi at Celerion in Lincoln is very bad. It is almost non-existent. They have recognized that their wifi is a problem for years, but have not addressed it. I can check my email and use messenger, but watching episodes does happen.

PHONE SERVICE
Phone service is an issue as well. Sprint has almost NO reception, T-mobile is not supported in Lincoln, and Verizon and AT&T also have signal issues.

FACILITES
The Celerion facility can be very smelly. There was one area that smelled like a toilet or sewage drain. Stay in that all weekend. If the place smell like a turd, I do not care how many big screens they have.


SUSPICIONS
Over the past 6 – 7 years, I have become suspicious of Celerion for a number of things.

Tom, the guy who goes over the lab packet, says that the you call in is your study number , but I know people and I myself have called in less than a minute after the results call started and ended up an alternative. Tom also says that the impression you give during you screening appointment can affect whether or not you will be on a study. He slips this in when he talks about using you cell phone during the screening appointment. If how you use your cell phone affects your eligibility, what else does?

The study managers at Celerion also try to “select” or “weed” out people who they think will not make it through the study. For example they have a randomized high-fat breakfast for a study that is 4 weekends. You would be surprised in this so called randomness when you see who has to eat the breakfast for the 1st week. It is better for study manager to get rid of someone early on rather than at the end of the study. Remember you can be dismissed from the study at any time for a number of made up reasons. The smoother the trials go and the better the results of the trial, the happier the client is. It is politics.

Then, to become a study participant at Celerion you have to go to their screening. Then you have to pass the results call. This is where everyone calls in at the same time, which is supposed to provide randomness to the study. Imagine 50+ people calling at the same time. If your call gets through, you are then told whether or not your lab work is ok. (If you pass your lab work) Who gets in as well as who is an alternative is very suspicious. They say it is all random, but I am beginning to think otherwise.

I also called Celerion to sign up for a study and they told me I did not qualify and could not give me a reason. Then the phone call was disconnected. When I tried to call back again, somehow I was disconnected again. I tried this another time and the same thing happened. Weird right?

[travelingrat]

this was a very good review, thank you.

i also believe that there are clinics out there that say they choose volunteers randomly, but do not. last May i was in a study in FL when a different study was advertised in the Sunday paper at the Daytona Beach clinic (the one that shall be nameless on this forum). friends of several of the women in the study called immediately Monday morning, as soon as the clinic ed, and were told that the study was already full although that was the first announcement that had appeared anywhere, including online. when we heard that, it seemed that everyone had a story to tell of similar experiences. i once saw 2 different women give money to a very nice nurse at one of the Baltimore clinics and asked that he contact them first if there were a good study for our age group. that was 2 years ago and i never found out if he did call them or not. he did move on to a better job so he is not there any more. but i have heard soooo many stories of preferential treatment and even phone trees, that i do believe this is going on in many clinics.

it does stand to reason that human nature being what it is, this sort of thing goes on. who you know is often a component in any job market. but it sure is frustrating. and i hate, hate, hate that competitive call-in system. most clinics just go by the lab results and that makes a lot more sense.

celerion paying less: i agree. i think they are trying to find several ways to do this. one is when there are a lot of potential consecutive returns at the end of the study, to have them be returns and not overnights.

i think Celerion is aiming for studies at $150/night these days, maybe not always succeeding, but aiming for that.

and it is so true they can dismiss you for any reason. personally i think a lot more volunteers would complain about a lot more things but no one (understandably) wants to get a "bad" reputation.

i was at the NJ Celerion last year where i would say the food was ok, not great, but ok. they have their own kitchen.

i would say the hardest thing about lab ratting is that we do not really have rights, or very shaky ones at best, because the study doctor and/or study director has the power to kick anyone out for any reason, and that is it.

[labrat1]

Hey travelingrat , you know what happened to me at Celerion NJ.


More later.

[potentialrat]

This is such a great forum, lots of good info.
I am about to do a Celerion study and I could certainly use the funds. However, I'm nervous about the food situation. Are they really very strict on the food, ie, do I have to clean my plate every single time? I have a slow metabolism and eat small meals, so if I'm forced to consume three whole high-fat meals for a few weeks it will be very problematic. Half the meal won't suffice? Some insight definitely needed.

[carmel]

Aug 16, 2012 16:11:18 GMT -5 potentialrat said:

I am about to do a Celerion study and I could certainly use the funds.

I don't know about you, but after just reading what labrat0000 wrote about Celerion I think I now have no desire to ever do a study with them. It seems like the list is very narrow to where I'd want to do a study at. Even the ones that look okay it seems very hard to get one without any outpatient visits. PPD seems to be the only one. And they have bad reputation, too.

[travelingrat]

Potential rat: re finishing meals: it does not depend on the clinic, it depends on the particular study one is doing. with some studies, the pharma sponsor wants to see how the drug interacts with food, or certain foods. other studies the sponsor does not care. i have been in both kinds of studies. yes, it can be difficult to eat everything on your plate within a certain period of time. you have to decide when you first learn the details of the study if you are willing to do that. other studies, you still have to show up for meals but it is your choice whether you want to eat some or even any of the meal.

clinics vary as to quality of food, obviously. most of the clinics i have been in have boring, starchy food that is supposedly comfort food; very few vegetables; sodas for beverages. i just think about the money i am making and chow down.

celerion: i have done one 30-day study at celerion NJ. i give the food a C; some meals a B. they have their own kitchen at that celerion, but they have to satisfy the tastes of wildly varying volunteers. i also did a very short 3 day study at celerion tempe. 2 meals were quite good, 1 was inedible, the rest i give a C to. they mostly serve tex-mex meals there.

celerion in general: if you go in prepared to mind your own business, not complain about a single thing, and do all procedures on time, you will probably do just fine. they do not want to hear about rules violations or deal with problems. it really, really helps if you bring earplugs and your own laptop.

OP visits: yes, they can be quite difficult. i actually rented a temp room for the last study i did. several of the ones before that, i was able to make friends with others in the study and stay with them. i wish that more rats would communicate with each other about shared housing, shared motel rooms, shared rides, especially before the study begins. it is so difficult when we do not know where the next study will be or even if we will get into it. anyone who ever wants to PM me re possible sharing, i am totally up for it IF i am ever in the same area with any other rat dealing with getting into a study or the OP visits.

to close on a positive note, i have made some terrific friends in every one of the studies i have been in.

[antecubital]

I've done a handful of studies at Celerion Neptune over the past several years, and I've never experienced any of the unfair treatment that has been attributed to the Lincoln clinic, where I've never been. I have no complaints in this regard against Celerion Neptune.

[mike]

I have now done about 3 studies at Celerion Tempe, I really only go there because I'm living in SoCal now and it is one of only basically 2 options that I have. I don't really like them, the phone call in thing is stupid, but the worst thing is substandard pay; I just completed a three week study there that payed $3500. I previously did a study at another clinic that was for about the same amount of time and was easier that payed $6500.

I really, really get irritated at clinics that pay too little, being a labrat is difficult and troublesome work, and we deserve to get payed decently for it. I highly recommend avoiding low paying clinics if you can avoid them.

If you consider screening and followups, that $3500 study I did I was only making like $1000 a week for being in clinic for 3 weeks straight. That sucks. The better clinics typically pay well over $200 per over night stay. And it was a dose every day drug with higher incidence of side effects and bad reactions.

[vark]

(well i'm very happy whenever i can get a 3 week study for $3500. i'm about to do one of those.)

I've had two experiences with celerion NJ. The first time, I get there, they had cancelled the screening and not bothered to tell me. 1000 mile round trip wasted. The second time, they called me to come screen. 3 of us went together to save gas. another 1000 mile round trip wasted. they screened 100 people for like 5 spots, but they didn't take any of us, they only took 5 people who had done studies there before. so i have very little trust for this place.

what i learned from this: always, always, ask how many people will be screened for how many spots. many of the clinics won't want to tell you this, but it's our right to know so be persistent and rephrase the question until you get some hard data. it can save you wasted trips.
ask for the calendar and consent agreement to be emailed to you. most places won't do this, but ask anyway. a lot of the time, there is some info in the consent agreement that they don't tell you over the phone, so it's another way to avoid making wasted screening visits.

how about you guys, are there questions you always ask that get you extra information?

i looked into their lincoln location, since i had a nice study in omaha recently, ($3500 for 3 weeks!) but they usually make you take a second wasted trip to see the dr instead of doing both the same visit. we all know those physicals take about 2 minutes. if they don't have enough respect for us that they can't take 2 minutes to save us driving 1000 miles, it's not really the kind of place i would want to do a study. so celerion is near the bottom of places i would screen; they would have to have soing pretty good to entice me out there to screen,and i would just expect it to be a wasted trip. i do have one friend who is headed there now to do a $4000 study, so i guess it's possible.
oh, also the new jersey one is right next to asbury park, so you could go to the beach after you screen.

[antecubital]

Getting information about Celerion Neptune studies is more challenging now because when you call in, you're not talking directly to the clinic, but to the call center, whose staff only has basic info like screening dates, study dates, type of drug, and payment. For anything beyond that, you have to try to penetrate the phone banks to get to an actual person in Neptune who knows what's going on.

Yeah, I've had it happen, too-- calling Phoenix (the call center) to confirm a check-in only to show up for it and be told that the study was cancelled or postponed.

The good thing about Celerion Neptune is that they tell you right at phone screening what the payment schedule is, and they ARE reliable about paying you when they say they will.

One thing I've noticed is that it's easier to get into smaller studies, presumably because most people want big studies. I don't. Anything more than a week at a time is too long for me.

[travelingrat]

there are so many obstacles to being a lab rat and getting into good studies. it seems that while the of responsible, honest rats seems to be fairly small, the of lab rats in general is huge. since we are not considered employees, our rights are soooooo limited. and if we complain, there are plenty more to take our places.

and the clinics do frequently seem to give out conflicting info. last december (2011) there was a great study for my age group (old!) at the celerion tempe. at that time i had a FL address. even though i explained i have friends in tempe i can stay with whenever i want, they said they would not allow out-of-staters to screen, and they still say that on the phone.

however, i got into a small study a few weeks ago there after i obtained an AZ state ID card. in my study there were 2 Mexican nationals, NON-English-speaking, who used their Mexican passports as their ID's. i am OK with them being there... they have to earn money too and they were both nice ... what i am not fine with is the conflicting info given out by Celerion tempe. also this indicates possible favoritism and dare i say, collusion, on the part of recruiters. i have heard this about West Coast Clinical Trials and PPD too ... that especially with studies for women, the recruiters often manage to pre-pick Latinos for screenings and the spots fill up immediately. i would like to see consistency in their policies; if they are not going to accept Americans from out of state, then don't accept Mexican nationals either. i am not prejudiced, i just want fairness across the board. there is no one monitoring such actions and as far as i can tell, no effective way to complain.

re getting info about studies before traveling: if you request to speak with the Study Manager for that particular study, sometimes you can get through to him or her. my impression has been that it is easier to do that at Celerion Neptune than Celerion Tempe.

as far as the money, i also think celerion pays less .... but in my age group there are so few studies that i have to take what i can get, and also toss the dice re traveling to screenings. but so far lab ratting has helped me a lot with my expenses so i am going to keep trying for a while at least! i just get frustrated with many of the unfair and illogical things that take place re getting into trials.

[mike]

I have done a lot of studies in TX, KS, CA, and IN, and the only place where most of the participants are hispanic is at Celerion Tempe. I don't mind hispanics either, they are just fine, but I do mind illegal aliens, and it's clear that many of the participants at Celerion are probably illegal. Probably about half of the hispanics that I have seen there in studies or during screenings speak little to no English. Translation is constantly required. It seems dangerous to me to have people who don't really understand everything unless there is a staff member or another labrat there who can translate for them.

Supposedly AZ has passed laws particularly unfriendly to illegals? Well at Celerion there is apparently a sanctuary for them; it's the only clinic I have gone to that does not require a social security card.

That being said, I have not seen anything to indicate that there is any racial favoritism occurring there, it just appears that a lot more hispanics screen for studies there; many if not most of the staff are probably hispanic, but I have never had a problem with any of them, they have always been professional, patient, polite, etc.

[travelingrat]

i have zero problem with Hispanics, legal or illegal, doing studies at Celerion tempe. my issue is that why should persons with Mexican passports be accepted into studies but Americans from out of state be refused? this does not make sense to me and i can't see any other way to explain it except as favoritism.

several friends and i (from FL, MD, NY) tried to get screening appointments at celerion tempe and were always told, "No out-of-staters allowed!" this was over a period of 2 YEARS. finally i solved the problem by getting an AZ I.D., only to find that my study had 2 persons with Mexican passports as I.D.!!!!! If someone has a good explanation other than favoritism for why someone from Florida is not allowed to screen and someone from Mexico is, i would love to hear it!

and i agree with you 100% that the largely Hispanic staff is wonderful and extremely kind, and the 2 persons from Mexico in the same study as me, were also wonderful persons. but my friend in Florida is a wonderful person too! why should he be shut out?

[vark]

the main problem the clinics have with out of staters is we don't always show up for exit physicals, etc. a person could live in mexico right across the b from az and be pretty close, and maybe they've had a good track record of people showing up (because it's good money, in pesos.) still, if this is soing that's bothering you, you could complain to the IRB or the FDA. I personally have found IRB's to be a rubber stamp for whatever big pharma (c_v___) wants, but it lets you move your complaint up a notch.
no-out-of-staters policies have costs me a lot of money over the years. right now i'm in a study 500 miles from home, living out of a hostel, took a little convincing for them to let me in.

[carmel]

Sept 13, 2012 12:05:36 GMT -5 vark said:

right now i'm in a study 500 miles from home, living out of a hostel, took a little convincing for them to let me in.

Just out of curiosity, what did you say to the clinic to convince them to let you stay? Asking in case I ever find myself in this situation. Look forward to hearing your reply.