HomeContact Site map   Google    www    iipm think tank
   
   
  Home > Under Cover > International > Humans, or Guinea Pigs?
  
   
     
   Case Studies  
       
  Marketing    
  Human Resource    
  Information Technology    
  Finance    
  Strategy    
       
 
     
   Industries  
       
  Steel    
  Glass    
  Banking    
  Prophylactic    
  Auto    
  Hospitality    
  Energy    
       
 
     
   Other links  
       
  IIPM    
  Planman Consulting    
  Planman Marcom    
  Planman Technologies    
  Daily Indian Media    
  Planman Financial    
  4P's Business and Marketing    
  Business and Economy    
  The Daily Indian    
  The Sunday Indian    
  Arindam Chaudhuri    
  GIDF    
       
 
  
         
International
  
PHARMA : CLINICAL TRIALS
Humans, or Guinea Pigs?
Companies use poor and uneducated patients to try new drugs

Every year millions across the world, more so in the developing countries of South Asia and Africa, line up to earn a quick buck. Welcome to a world where humans are fast replacing guinea pigs!

Advancements in medicine may have increased the life span, but with pharmaceutical companies getting into the race to nail down competition from rival companies, the rules seem to have changed. The increasing practice of engaging unsuspecting candidates in illegal clinical trials is disturbing; they get away with it because most of these participants in the trial are poor and uneducated. Many big names have already set up ‘Test Labs’ in countries like India, Nigeria, Indonesia, wherein behind the cloak of R&D, they easily conduct clinical trial of drugs on unsuspecting patients.

Invaribaly, the primary reason for targeting poor countries is the monetary factor. The tests, which cost around $150 million in the US, can be conducted in developing countries for as little as $90 million. According to a McKinsey report, pharmaceutical companies are likely to invest around $1 to1.5 billion on drug trials by 2010 in almost all developing and underdeveloped countries.

Companies like Nicholas Piramal of Mumbai used 2000 healthy textile workers for medical tests under the cloak of genome research while Quintiles Transnational recruited more than 13,000 Indian patients. Moreover, variants of the pancreatic and prostate cancer drugs are being tested illegally in Argentina, the Czech Republic and Poland while Eli-Lilly is testing expensive Drotrecogin-alfa in more than 36 developing
and underdeveloped countries like Chile, Lebanon, Brazil, India, Philippines and Egypt.

Thanks to effective regulation and prosecution policies in these countries, most trials take place in broad daylight. Saving lives and furthering research is one thing, but to endanger the lives of the poor taking advantage of ignorance is the worst possible crime against humanity. This has to stop at any cost or the side effects of the newly developed drugs will cause deep fissures in an already fragile society for which no pharma company will ever be able to find the right antidote.

Sray Agarwal


  
 
 
       
Home | Scrutiny | Publications | About us | Contact us
Copyright @2010 iipm think tank. All rights reserved.