We've participated in studies ourselves and signed our children up for them occasionally. We've restricted ourselves to noninvasive studies, though. No drug testing, nothing that requires operations, etc. About the limit for me was allowing my kids to have free MRIs (not CAT scans!). They, of course, got to keep the money and choose whether to join such studies or not. We got into doing these studies primarily as a way to obtain expensive care cheaply - we needed to have some of our kids tested for autism spectrum disorders, and even if we had the $4k comprehensive testing cost locally at the time, the waitlist was over a year long. Or we could participate in studies that just happened to include the same testing (and diagnosis if requested) as part of their study.
This one sounds like a lot of money to test a drug. Even with two weekend stays, that's just a lot of money. Further, it's for an HIV drug, and that sets off alarm bells for me due to an article I read years ago about an autoimmune drug trial run by a private company:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9734-mystery-over-drug-trial-debacle-deepens-/
Given the high pay, I'd suggest there's an associated high risk. Probably a very early stage drug trial. Further, it's one that is meant to attack AIDs. There's not much out there that can go after AIDs without also having significant negative consequences. In other words, this is a drug you'd
only ever take because AIDs is far worse than the side effects.
Here's some interesting insight into the lincoln, ne Celerion site:
http://jalr.proboards.com/thread/89/celerion-review-suspicion
Note that he suggests a study requiring four overnight visit of 4 nights each and 28 return visits got him only $5,500. That's significantly more time (16 overnights, 28 returns) for less than half the price of yours.
In fact there are only a few threads on that board, might be worth reading through them. It looks like getting into any study is extraordinarily competitive, and there's already people who have priority for new studies. They pick and choose participants based on who's most likely to complete, and they kick people out of a study as early as possible to avoid study failure. There is also some pressure not to report side effects because it'll get you kicked out of a study. (all things which set off alarm bells for me in terms of the FDA drug approval process, and help me understand why deadly drugs like
fen-phen got on the market in the first place.)
http://jalr.proboards.com/board/6/celerion-lincoln-ne
In other words, even if you do want to do this it's going to be very hard to get in (lots of people will want to be in on this expensive study), and if you do get in you may have to choose between reporting accurately, and staying in the study to get the completion bonus. My guess is that the completion bonus is large, and so you could end up getting an injection of an not-yet-tested-on-humans drug, having medical problems because of it, and walking away with a small fraction of the advertised pay. No doubt the disclaimers will be iron clad and prevent you from seeking much compensation if things go really wrong. The cytokine storm the first article I linked to above is really a worst case scenario (well, aside from actual death - but they aren't monitoring you for 48 hours for funsies, either) - if there are significant adverse reactions they probably aren't going to be nearly as bad.
Soooo.... It'd be a big no for me, for all these reasons.
Have an inexpensive wedding instead.[DOUBLEPOST=1493833992,1493833863][/DOUBLEPOST]Haha, look at me, mr. doom and gloom with a side dish of conspiracy! Take it all with a huge grain of salt. $13k is nothing to sneeze at, and if it's the perfect wedding and all you suffer is lifelong persistent dry mouth or a similar side effect I'm sure you'll be happy with your decision.[DOUBLEPOST=1493834132][/DOUBLEPOST]If you do decide to go through with it, though, make certain you are very, very well informed. There are lots of resources for "lab rats" that tell you how the industry works, what to ask, what not to ask, and what, if any, trips and traps might befall the newbie. It's worth significant research before starting the ... uh... research.[DOUBLEPOST=1493834720][/DOUBLEPOST]It's very odd that Yelp and the BBB have absolutely nothing on them. I guess you can always ask what employees thought of working there:
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Celerion/reviews?start=20