The government has admitted for the first time that thousands of people
have died during clinical trials of new drugs produced by multinational
pharmaceutical companies.
Federal Minister for Health and
Family Welfare Gulam Nabi Azad said yesterday that 1,106 people died in the two
years preceding March this year after undergoing human trials of new drugs.
Another 38 deaths were listed as
mishaps in connection with these trials, the minister told the upper house of
parliament in New Delhi.
Previously the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare reported that the Central Drugs
Standards Control Organization had approved drugs for sale in India without
clinical trials, he said.
“This is the first time the
Indian government has admitted so many people have died of clinical trials in
India,” Anand Rai, a doctor-turned-activist who has set up an organization to
help clinical trial victims, said today.
His NGO, Clinical Trial Victims
of India, has filed several cases in courts across India in a bid to seek
justice for victims of these trials.
“[The government] never bothered
about the fate of poor victims who had undergone clinical trials,” said Rai,
who is based in the central Indian city of Indore.
Multinational drug companies have
used Indian citizens as guinea pigs, he added, a process which he said had been
fueled by the lack of accountability.
“In most cases, when people died
during trials, the doctors listed their deaths as due to chronic illnesses to
evade compensation laws,” said Rai.
The health minister has said the
deaths could be due to terminal illnesses such as cancer or the administration
of strong drugs on critically or terminally ill patients which could lead to
fatal side-effects.
Kerala state on the southwest
coast has recently closed its health and research center after it conducted 47
such trials over the past three years.
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