Photocredit: Lisa Andres

A free holiday in Mexico? Sure! All you have to do is test a diarrhoea medication? Maybe not.

US vaccine manufacturer Intercell is offering a free trip to either Mexico or Guatemala to volunteers for its latest drug trial: a new remedy for travelers’ diarrhoea. Flight and three-star hotel accommodation up to a value of €1,600 (£1,400, $2,247) will be provided to 1,800 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 64, The Telegraph reported today.

Each volunteer will be administered the vaccine via a patch worn on the arm for six hours, three weeks before travelling. A second patch will be worn a week prior to travelling. They will be allowed to eat and drink what they choose but must not go more than three hours’ travelling time without providing stool samples and blood tests at a participating clinic, reported The Telegraph.

An initial trial was conducted last year on 170 volunteers from America who also travelled to Mexico or Guatemala. Intercell was pleased to see results showing a 75 percent reduction of diarrhoea occurrence but wanted to test the effectiveness on a worldwide scale to obtain a global license. “If we can show broad coverage against travelers’ diarrhoea we estimate we could get peak sales of €500m a year in five to 10 years,” said Thomas Lingelbach, chief executive of Intercell, told The Independent.

The participants are being sent to areas of the world where bacteria prone to cause diarrhoea are prevalent. Lingelbach hopes recruitment will be high during the Mexican wet season – spring to summer in the UK – because diarrhoea incidence rates are highest during that period. Intercell’s clinical director Dr. Nigel Thomas said, “We are looking for people who have already planned to go to Mexico or Guatemala and think this would add another interesting aspect.” He also noted that the results of the study could be compromised if the participants choose to only eat in five-star hotel restaurants, reported The Independent.

Two hundred people have signed up so far and more volunteers are currently being recruited in Germany and the UK. Recruitment clinics have been set up in Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Reading and London. Another study is being planned for travelers to India, but recruitment has not yet begun.