Indians pay dear for drug reputation
KOLKATA - More than 2,500 Indians have died in the course of clinical trials in recent years, government figures reveal.
According to an affidavit filed by the health ministry in the Supreme Court in response to a petition by health NGOs, there were 80 deaths due to clinical trials between January 2005 and June 2012. Between July 2012 and August 2013, nine more such reported deaths occurred, making this total 89, according to the petitioner Swasthya Adhikar Manch (SAM), a health rights forum. Compensation was paid in 82 cases.
The ministry also admitted that 2,644 people died during clinical trials of 475 new drugs from 2005 to 2012. These people died during the period of the clinical trials.
SAM challenges this number of 80 deaths said to have been caused by clinical trials - among the rest who are said only to have died during the course of the trials and not as a result of the trials.
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