Being a part of a clinical drug trial can pay very well—up to several thousand dollars. And a lot of people need that cash and are desperate to take part. 

But when someone's desperate for that money, they'll cut a lot of corners: lie to be accepted, fail to report adverse reactions or other complicating factors and skip the mandatory recovery time between trials. When that happens, it can throw everything off, including the data that Health Canada may be relying on in order to approve these drugs for all of us to use...

GUEST: Rob Cribb, director of the Investigative Journalism Bureau, investigative reporter at the Toronto Star

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected] 

Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter