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:
- Panama: Decreto Ejecutivo 21 of 23 April 2026, art. 67(2), requires the investigator to obtain from the sponsor “financial provisions” for compensating possible damage and to attach that agreement to the bioethics submission. We did not find an explicit insurance-policy mandate in the decree; a certificate of insurance is the usual way to document the provision, and committees may ask for one.
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 Panama clinical trial insurance FIH, CNBI trial liability, buy trial coverage Panama device, 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 We do not quote a binder.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.
Panama ethics typically 3–5 weeks; with bioaccess® coordination, protocol to first-patient averages 6–8 weeks on the live hub. Per-patient costs there: $12,000–$22,000 in U.S. dollars. Those are start-up and visit-cost figures, not premiums. CNBI-registered ethics still wants paper in the packet.
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: Panama MINSA/CNBI 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/MINSA / CNBI 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.
Early-feasibility in Panama is ethics-committee-driven
Live Panama blogs already say early-feasibility is ethics-committee-driven — not an INVIMA/ANVISA-style second national device step. Insurance documentation gaps are a common resubmission on the insurance hub. This page does not repeat that hub. It answers “Panama FIH insurance” so a founder does not treat bioaccess® as the carrier.
The Panama Clinic and other campuses are not insurers
Cediul is not covered on this page. The Panama Clinic is not this page. A hallway conversation at a Panama hospital is not MINSA clearance and it is not a binder. Named-insured requests for the PI and site are common. A U.S. certificate in English only is a delay. Ask for Spanish when the committee asks for Spanish.
What ethics and MINSA / CNBI actually ask for
Use Clinical Trials in Panama. Panama’s Ministry of Health (MINSA), through the Dirección Nacional de Farmacia y Drogas, is the national file. Ethics review runs through institutional bioethics committees registered with the Comité Nacional de Bioética de la Investigación (CNBI). Published ethics typically 3–5 weeks; with bioaccess® coordination, protocol submission to first-patient enrollment averages 6–8 weeks on that hub. Per-patient costs there: $12,000–$22,000 in U.S. dollars. A hallway conversation at this hospital is not MINSA clearance.
Insurance documentation is usually in the ethics / MINSA / CNBI 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 cannot issue a Panama certificate is decoration. A Panama-only local policy that cannot later add Colombia is a one-country trap if the protocol expands. bioaccess® still runs trials in Colombia. We pick the country the device needs.
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. Panama is often a first FIH country on this platform. Insurance is in the same stack as import and ISO 14155 — not a founder WhatsApp after SIV is booked.
- Protocol, IB, ICF, and the ethics / MINSA / CNBI 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. Ethics review in both Panama and Colombia runs 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 Panama MINSA/CNBI 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 Panama FIH trial insurance, start as the operator: contact bioaccess® or book from First-in-Human CRO. Panama operator page: Clinical Trials in Panama. Hub guide: Clinical Trial Liability Insurance in Latin America: Requirements by Country.
Julio G. Martinez-Clark, CEO · bioaccess®