General information, not insurance, legal, or regulatory advice. Confirm current ethics-committee, regulatory, import and coverage rules with qualified advisers and a licensed broker. This page does not quote premiums, limits or carrier rates.
What the law says (verified 29 October 2026)
Hub guide: Clinical Trial Liability Insurance in Latin America: Requirements by Country sets out each country’s rule with links to the primary text. The rule for this country, from the primary text:
- Costa Rica: Ley 9234 art. 31 and Decreto 39061-S art. 14 require a civil liability policy enforceable in Costa Rica, from an insurer with a branch or service center in the country. Under the decree it runs at least two years after the final report is delivered to the ethics committee (art. 14(a)) and three years after each participant’s participation ends (art. 14(b)); Ley 9234 art. 31 sets a floor of two years after participation ends. Each participant receives proof of the policy (art. 32). See Costa Rica under Ley 9234.
None of these rules sets a minimum dollar limit. Limits come from contracts and underwriting. Insurers price a specific protocol, so see what insurers need before they’ll quote.
If you searched Costa Rica clinical trial coverage, CONIS trial insurance, Ley 9234 clinical trial liability, you were looking for someone who would write international clinical-trial coverage for an investigational device. bioaccess® is a first-in-human medical-device CRO. We are not an insurance carrier. We do not underwrite policies. We do not sell premiums. We do not quote a binder. OUS and Latin American device trials still need trial-specific liability — local admitted paper, a master with local certificates, or both. We run the trial under ISO 14155. We can introduce a specialty carrier. That introduction is not a signed partnership on this page, and it is not a quote.
Costa Rica’s biomedical-research stack sits under Ley N.° 9234. An accredited CEC reviews first; then CONIS / the Ministry of Health registers the study. Combined ethics + regulatory clocks on the live country page are typically ~30–90 days. A 3% CONIS canon on the study budget is a legal charge, not a CRO fee, and not an insurance premium. We do not underwrite.
This page is separate from Clinical Trial Liability Insurance in Latin America: Requirements by Country. That hub sets out each country’s legal requirement with primary-law citations. This page’s topic: Costa Rica CONIS / Ley 9234 insurance exhibit. Same operator: the CRO runs the trial; a carrier writes the paper.
The CRO is not the carrier
Founders type “buy clinical trial insurance” and land on CROs, brokers, and hospital MSAs in the same result set. Those are three jobs:
- Carrier. Underwrites participant injury, medical expenses for trial-related events, defense, and site/investigator indemnification — if the form matches the protocol. A hallway conversation is not a binder.
- Broker. Places the form, translations, additional-insured endorsements, and territory wording. Licensed where the paper has to sit.
- CRO. Protocol, IB, ICF, ethics/CONIS / Ministry of Health packet, importer of record for clinical trial devices in Latin America, ISO 14155 monitoring, SAE clock, TMF, and the 21 CFR 812.28 narrative. See OUS FIH and FDA IDE. Eligibility of foreign data is not FDA clearance.
Mixing those jobs is how a startup buys a U.S. product-liability rider, emails a PDF to an ethics committee, and gets a resubmission. Product liability is not clinical-trial liability. A site’s institutional policy is not the sponsor’s trial form.
The 3% canon is not trial liability
Founders mix the CONIS budget canon with “coverage.” They are different objects. The canon is a legal charge of 3% of the study budget (Ley 9234, art. 60). Subject-injury paper is a carrier form. Paying the canon does not indemnify the participant. Filing a carrier certificate does not pay the canon. bioaccess® explains both. We sell neither.
CEC first, CONIS second, certificate in the stack
An NCT location row is not CONIS registration. A hallway conversation at a Costa Rican clinic is not that registration. ICIMED, CIMCA, and other Costa Rica site pages are campuses — not insurers. Named-insured and Spanish-language asks still belong to the carrier and the clerk.
What ethics and CONIS / Ministry of Health actually ask for
Use Clinical Trials in Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s biomedical-research stack sits under Ley N.° 9234. An accredited CEC reviews the protocol first; then the study is registered with CONIS / the Ministry of Health. Combined ethics + regulatory clocks on the live country page are typically ~30–90 days. Confirm the current calendar with qualified advisers; an NCT location row is not CONIS registration. A 3% CONIS canon on the study budget is a legal charge under Ley 9234, art. 60 — not a CRO fee and not an insurance premium.
Insurance documentation is usually in the ethics / CONIS / Ministry of Health packet, not a post-approval formality. Two exceptions: in Mexico the policy goes to COFEPRIS within 15 business days after authorization, and in Brazil CEP/CONEP don’t ask for proof of insurance. Typical asks (confirm with the reviewing body):
- Territory that names every country on the protocol.
- Site and principal investigator as additional insureds when the committee requires it.
- Policy period through last-patient last-visit plus the protocol follow-up window.
- Spanish (or Portuguese) certificate or notarized summary when the committee asks for it.
- Claims-notice language that can sit next to the SAE clock, not against it.
None of the national rules or ethics-committee documents we read sets a per-participant dollar minimum. Ask the carrier and the CRO together, before the packet goes in.
Local policy vs controlled master
A master that excludes Costa Rica fails CONIS-side filing. A Costa Rica-only local policy that cannot add Colombia later is a trap if the protocol expands. bioaccess® still runs trials in Colombia.
A “controlled master” that never issues a local certificate is a slide, not a submission. A local-only policy that cannot travel to a second Latin American country is a one-country trap. The operator chooses geography for the device; the paper has to follow the protocol, not the other way around.
What bioaccess® still owns after you have a quote
- Regulatory-fit, not tourism. We pick the country the device needs. Costa Rica is on the public countries hub. It is not a reason to skip INVIMA when Colombia is the indication.
- Protocol, IB, ICF, and the ethics / CONIS / Ministry of Health packet with insurance documents in the same stack — not a parallel founder email.
- Importer of record and device accountability. A binder does not import the investigational product.
- Site activation: contracts, training, investigational product, EDC, monitoring plan. A site MSA that “includes insurance” is still not ISO 14155 monitoring.
- Introducing a specialty carrier when the founder does not already have admitted paper. An introduction is not a partnership or a quote.
The firm was founded in 2010. Published first-in-human device case studies show FIH execution with import and insurance as workstreams — not as bioaccess® underwriting.
Colombia is still on the map
A site-name search sometimes arrives with a stale story that bioaccess® “left Colombia.” That is false. bioaccess® runs first-in-human studies in Colombia now. bioaccess® has a local entity and office in Colombia, with headquarters in Miami. In Panama and Colombia alike, ethics timing depends on each committee’s meeting schedule. The country page’s published per-patient comparison: $12K–$22K vs. $15K–$25K as published on Clinical Trials in Panama. We pick the country the device needs. The founder podcast is Global Trial Accelerators™.
A Bogotá or Floridablanca ethics packet still wants financial responsibility for participant injury. bioaccess® still runs clinical trials in Colombia. We pick the country the device needs.
Frequently asked questions
Does bioaccess® sell clinical trial insurance?
No. We are the FIH CRO. We can introduce a carrier. We do not underwrite. We do not bind.
Is this the same article as the LATAM insurance hub?
No. The hub is Clinical Trial Liability Insurance in Latin America: Requirements by Country. This page covers the Costa Rica CONIS / Ley 9234 insurance exhibit.
Can a U.S. product-liability policy cover a LATAM device FIH?
Only if the territory clause and the trial-liability form actually name the countries and the investigational activity. Many U.S. GL/PL policies exclude OUS research. Get it in writing from the carrier. A verbal “we’re global” is not an ethics exhibit.
Next step
If the search that brought you here was Costa Rica clinical trial coverage, start as the operator: contact bioaccess® or book from First-in-Human CRO. Costa Rica operator: Clinical Trials in Costa Rica. Hub guide: Clinical Trial Liability Insurance in Latin America: Requirements by Country.
Julio G. Martinez-Clark, CEO · bioaccess®