India’s poor being used as guinea pigs for trials by Multinational Drug Companies

Some British and German drug companies have been using poor people in India as guinea pigs to conduct human trials of their new drugs.  They use falsehoods, deception and outright lies to hoodwink the poor, since they don’t have enough resources nor access to good care anyway.  They are provided expensive drugs free of charge – which surprises them – but it comes at a huge cost of their lives sometimes.  Look at the case of Narayan.

In a different trial with a different company, Narayan Survaiya says neither he nor his late mother Tizuja Bai were asked if she wanted to participate, or even told that she was taking part in one, when she sought treatment for problems with her legs. And, like Mrs Sodey, he claims the family were told that a charity was footing the bill for the care.

A few weeks after taking the drug, Mr Survaiya says his mother’s health deteriorated and she was left unable to walk.

“I told the doctor, but he said don’t stop the doses. It is a temporary paralysis and the drug will make it better.”

His mother died a few weeks later.

8 out of 53 “test subjects” have died during these trials.  Not even children have been left out.

Over the past seven years, some 73 clinical trials on 3,300 patients – 1,833 of whom were children – have taken place at Indore’s Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital. Dozens of patients have died during the trials, however no compensation has been paid to the families left behind.

The whole thing wouldn’t have come to light from the Yeshwantrao Hospital if one doctor Dr. Anand Rai wouldn’t have become suspicious and raised concern.  And, been fired for being the nosey whistle blower!

It is sad that all the high risk and high cost trashy work is siphoned off to India because of lax laws. Even in the ship breaking industry, its the same strategy. (Read Alang, largest ship breaking center – a boon or curse)

An ignorant and murder-able populace is not a great resource to build business competencies for any society or country.  The reason why these companies can do all this is because they can.  India needs laws and implementation of those laws.  Unfortunately, lack of laws and their implementation, makes business and money flow in the country possible.  At a huge cost to the ignorant, poor and illiterate!