'Panels delaying probe into RCC issue'

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 6. The committees probing the controversial drug trials in the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) here were seeking to prolong the proceedings so that the issue would fade away from public memory, the health researcher, Dr. C. R. Soman, has charged.

He was speaking at a seminar on the topic, "RCC and drug trials: are the people of the Third World guinea-pigs of multinational companies?", organised by the Yuvajana Vedi here today.

Dr. Soman said the real facts about the Johns Hopkins-linked drug trails could be unearthed if answers could be found to questions such as whether the tests were carried out on animals and whether the patients, mostly illiterate, were told about the tests.

He said the unethical drug trials carried out on 25 patients at the RCC was a "criminal act" and those who conducted the test would be held responsible if any of the patient who underwent the test died.

Dr. Soman, who is also the chairman of the voluntary agency, Health Action by People (HAP), said the public should exert pressure on the authorities to bring out the truth.

According to the health researcher, it was clear from all available documented information, including the RCC's official press releases, that there were several claims by the RCC authorities that failed to tally with the facts.

The trial was outside the ambit of the project cleared by the RCC's ethical committee and the Drugs Controller General of India's clearance.

Dr. Soman said the human trials of the two chemicals, M4N and G4N, which were isolated at the Johns Hopkins University, were carried out on 25 patients at the RCC between November 12, 1999 and April 8, 2000.

The tests were carried out on oral cancer patients awaiting surgical treatment without testing the drug on animals and without following the laid down norms in the country.

According to Dr. Soman, the biopsy samples taken from first four patients were later taken to Johns Hopkins University from the RCC.

According Dr. Soman, the RCC received Rs. 17 lakhs in the first year and Rs. 23 lakhs for the study. The drug was brought to the RCC without obtaining the mandatory licence from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

It was when the Benares Hindu University and the JK Cancer Institute asked for the licence for carrying out the study at the two centres, that the licence from the DCGI was obtained in seven days, he said.

Dr. Soman said large-scale drug trials were being clandestinely carried out on the people of the Third World countries in order to ascertain the real consequences of the medicines and the effects on human subjects at low cost.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Bid to block Mayor leads to scuffle
Next     : Cong. praises CM for welfare-oriented schemes