Just to build on this, many drug and device companies specifically run early trials in the developing world or eastern Europes specifically because the costs are so much lower.

Part of the costs are labor and materials, the majority is regulatory burden. It is a well established financial de-risking activity before spending the hundreds of millions more for a US/EU trial.

Edit for visibility:

The drugs in this trial are all previously developed and approved by other companies, some as early as the 1950s. They ran the trials in Kazakhstan, India, and similar developing countries. They have no manufacturing and supply chain, because they buy commercially available generics off the shelf for pennies.

There is a lot to say about pricing, but the guardian is shamelessly engaging in disinformation.