International journals are no longer allowed to publish such results. I do think that Western companies will follow the ethical line. Problems, however, typically strike at the local level. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China now have national guidelines setting out standards of good practice for clinical trials and they are in development in Malaysia and Indonesia. But in either case, it will take some years before they are fully implemented.
All countries require that clinical trials get regulatory and ethical approval before they start.
Pharmaceutical or other research institutions will not hold back just because some countries in which they aim to conduct trials are not ready with competent ethics review committees or with national guidelines that can be enforced. If they are not up to international standards, then neither are the studies they are supposed to approve and monitor. Peter Lurie, deputy director of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group in Washington, is lobbying for U.S. drug companies to be required to get approval from an independent ethics committee in the U.S. before heading to a developing country to do a clinical trial, something which is currently only needed for U.S. government-funded research. Multinational companies insist that their trials are being conducted in Asia according to international guidelines. For example, Stephen Wise, managing director of Eli Lilly's clinical-research centre in Singapore, says the drug maker uses identical criteria for site and investigator selection in all countries.