Ethical Analysis of Egypt's Law Regulating Clinical Research

Abstract

Lately, there has been increased research performed in Egypt. In response, the Egyptian Parliament published its first clinical research law in December 2020. The official version of the law was translated to English from Arabic and back by an accredited translation service. We performed an ethical analysis of the law based on the seven ethical requirements for clinical research proposed by Emanuel et al. and compared it with other regulations in the Arab region. The law contains provisions that fulfill all requirements for ethical research to varying degree. Provisions necessitating the sharing of participants’ data and biospecimens by the Central Intelligence Agency requires further specifications to ensure privacy protection. Also, the law poses problematic liabilities that could hamper medical research. Egypt's law compares favorably with other laws in the region. Potential items that require further specification can be addressed in the executive regulations currently being drafted for the law.