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----- Original Message -----
From: "Mujtaba Merchant" <mujta...@gmail.com>
To: "Access India" <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 9:55 AM
Subject: [AI] Interesting Read - Indian Girls Become the Guinea Pigs
forWestern Cos
Hello Members,
Although this article is not related to the group or anything to do with
blindness or it's support, I felt it worth sharing with you all to build
awareness of what is happening with our country and giant pharma companies
in Europe and around the world.
Indian Girls Become the Guinea Pigs for Western Companies
Bangalore: In what could be seen as a new form of colonialism, India
becomes the new testing ground for drugs for American, British and
European pharmaceutical
firms and according to a report on the 'Independent', between 2007 and
2010, at least 1,730 people died in India while, or after, participating
in such
trials.
In an apparent show of the Western mode of exploitation, these
multinational companies have been making the most of India's huge
population and loose regulations
in this regard over the last five years by which they manage to
drastically cut short their expenses on research for these lucrative
products which are
to be sold in the West.
Ever since the restrictions on drug trials were relaxed in India, the
industry has grown to a point where more than 150,000 people are involved
in at least
1,600 clinical trials for the Western firms like Pfizer, AstraZeneca and
Merck. Although no official data is available on the size of this
exploitative
industry, it is estimated to be worth as much as 189 million pounds. While
the many on whom the trials were done, may have been only eligible for the
studies
as they were ill, the following complications, even resulting in death,
are often not properly investigated.
While it is said that the crucial trials were carried out following
appropriate guidelines, the report says the lack of oversight have
resulted in a situation
where poor and often illiterate individuals, picked from the tribal areas
or city slums are used for the critical trials without obtaining proper
informed
consent which means they have apparently agreed to the trials without
fully understanding what they are signing up for. At the shadow of this
inhuman practice
of drug trials on humans, a new industry has been spawned making
significant profits by providing participants for these studies.
An investigation by 'The Independent' in the Indian states of Madhya
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, as well as in Delhi and in London shows that
hundreds of
Indian tribal girls were recruited without proper parental consent for an
immunization study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
shockingly
just on the node of the government hostel's warden. Several girls have
reportedly killed and the controversial study was stopped by the federal
authorities.
The investigation also found the use by drug companies of survivors of the
Bhopal tragedy, world's worst poisonous gas disaster, as 'guinea pigs' in
at
least 11 trials without proper informed consent. In another shocking
finding, many cases of drug trials were reported at a government hospital
in Indore
of which 81 cases of adverse effects were reported.
India is just one of those many developing countries being exploited for
its large, ignorant and illiterate tribals by the Western pharmaceutical
giants
who spent over 40 billion pounds last year on research and development.
It's said that over 120,000 trials are taking place in 178 countries and
the companies
can reportedly reduce up to 60 percent of their spending on research
through outsourcing the works to these third world countries. The article
also reveals
that a quarter of all clinical data submitted to European drug regulators
for approval are obtained from trials in low- and middle-income countries.
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