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. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
