YOU would hope that a fake company, proposing to test a risky medical procedure, would be turned down flat. But that’s not what happened in an elaborate “sting” operation set up to probe the US system for protecting volunteers in clinical research.

Trials of new drugs or medical devices can only begin if approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Often these are attached to the hospitals or universities where the research will take place. But the task is increasingly being performed for profit by commercial IRBs, prompting fears that some may be rubber-stamping risky trials without proper scrutiny. …