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Published online 27 August 2008 | Nature 454, 1041 (2008) | doi:10.1038/4541041d
News in Brief
Inquiry launched into Indian drug trials
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Drug trials are a very lucrative flourishing business in India and many high profile companies are involved in that. But it operates like an organized crime syndicate in India. There is hardly any transparency in the whole process. There are many reports in reputed news media like BBC that, “In India, poor and illiterate patients are being used to test new drugs for the West and some are unaware they are even taking part in clinical trialsâ€. From personal experience I can say that such practice is rampant. It’s alleged that many high profile private nursing homes, hospitals and even govt hospitals are involved in such practices. There is hardly any follow up of the patients who took part in such “trialsâ€. In the best case scenario, nursing homes/hospitals wash their hands off once the “volunteers†are released from such trails. In a judicial system like that in India it’s almost impossible to “prove†anything in a court of law against that powerful lobby. Such medical malpractices not only restricted to drug trials but spread in almost everywhere in medical fraternity. Many doctors and “scientists†are involved with such activities. Since last few decades urban India has seen an unprecedented rise in cesarean delivery of pregnant women. There is hardly any normal delivery in urban India these days (except for those living below poverty line and who can not pay the fee). Doctros are misguiding and many times coercing patients and their families to have cesarean delivery. India is now a major hub of illegal human organ trade. It seems that at least some powerful people in ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and health ministry are also involved with such activities as ICMR or federal health ministry never seems to be very keen to punish errant doctors and medical establishments.
Drug trials are a very lucrative flourishing business in India and many high profile companies are involved in that. But it operates like an organized crime syndicate in India. There is hardly any transparency in the whole process. There are many reports in reputed news media like BBC that, -In India, poor and illiterate patients are being used to test new drugs for the West and some are unaware they are even taking part in clinical trials-. From personal experience I can say that such practice is rampant. It’s alleged that many high profile private nursing homes, hospitals and even govt hospitals are involved in such practices. There is hardly any follow up of the patients who took part in such –trials-. In the best case scenario, nursing homes/hospitals wash their hands off once the –volunteers- are released from such trails. In a judicial system like that in India it’s almost impossible to –prove- anything in a court of law against that powerful lobby. Such medical malpractices not only restricted to drug trials but spread in almost everywhere in medical fraternity. Many doctors and –scientists- are involved with such activities. Since last few decades urban India has seen an unprecedented rise in cesarean delivery of pregnant women. There is hardly any normal delivery in urban India these days (except for those living below poverty line and who can not pay the fee). Doctors are misguiding and many times coercing patients and their families to have cesarean delivery. India is now a major hub of illegal human organ trade. It seems that at least some powerful people in ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and health ministry are also involved with such activities as ICMR or federal health ministry never seems to be very keen to punish errant doctors and medical establishments. And in a country where belief in fate, faith is so much prevalent, affected families do not demand justice and judicial infrastructure can not deliver that either. So they grin and bear the whole saga of corruption and injustice.
A nice blog article on the same with relevant links: http://jaychatterjee.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-confident-we-are-about-indian.html
"...in a country where belief in fate, faith is so much prevalent, affected families do not demand justice and judicial infrastructure can not deliver that either. So they grin and bear the whole saga of corruption and injustice." This statement describes virtually all aspects of life in India, allowing for perpetuation of inequities between the wealthy & influential and those living in crushing poverty. The only solution is education; sadly, the ones who need it the most have the least access to it- a perfect vicious cycle!
True education is a rare commodity these days, even in Western countries. Adoption of US style "industrialized" education is making the situation worse world wide. "Education" no longer grooms people to become a better, civilized human being. It only teaches us the art and knowledge to serve our master (employer), gather degrees (to distinguish ourselves from others) and most importantly, accumulate money by whatever means deemed necessary. It enables us to survive with a degree of personal comfort and fame, but hardly prepares us to dream of a better world.
"True education is a rare commodity these days,...". It always was; those who look to the past with nostalgia, seem to ignore many negative aspects. Not that the current "American Dream (=greed) which seems to promote personal gains above all else is a commendable thing, granting far less than equal rights to women and designating a large group of people "untouchable" dooming them to a life of misery was all part of old-fashioned teachings in India. But conscientious people always try to do what is right. I still hold hope that a balance between greed and social responsibility will be found in time before too much damage is done to the entire Indian society.
Yes, it was there in the past but the balance is tilting increasingly more towards negative since last few decades. Let?s talk about India. There were only 20 universities and 500 colleges in Indian subcontinent (i.e. including Bangladesh and Pakistan) in 1947 (the year India became free from British rule). Now there are about 376 universities and 17,700 colleges in India only with many new institutes, many with world class physical infrastructure. Many private research institutes are also coming up on a regular basis. The only Nobel prizes for India (Indian citizen at the time of the award) in science by CV Raman (1930, University of Calcutta) was also from that era. We also had many world class scientists during that time (e.g Satyen Bose, JC Bose, Homi Bhaba etc). Published reports now show that the quality of science education and research is going down despite of increasing funding and other facilities [Jayaraman, K. S. (2007). Indian science is in decline, says prime minister. Nature 445, 134-5; Balaram, P. (2002). Science in India: Signs of Stagnation. Current Science 82, 193-194]. As students from developed countries are less interested in careers in science education and research, India (and China) became the main supplier of technical manpower worldwide. But majority of those students/technicians are neither qualified not interested for career in research but they have to do that to survive, to have a decent life in India or abroad, if possible. In India science education is not a choice but a necessity to survive, to get a job (and parents force their kids to science education). As PhD and postdoc tenure, they just lend their hands and carry out experiments designed and analyzed by their supervisors and get first author papers. Majority of such people with first author papers in Cell, Science, Nature type high profile journals looses all their productivity when they themselves become faculty (in India). Many of the ?scientists? in high positions in Indian universities and institutes are having heavy weight degrees from some high profile universities in US or Europe. Many of the ?scientists? involved in medical malpractice and crime are also having heavy weight degrees, even from abroad. Many of the industry captains that are involved in such immoral business practices, operate such drug trials also have heavy weight MBA degrees from highly famous US or EU universities. Politicians, also with heavy weight degrees, are happy that such dubious drug trials and new R&D centers are bringing money to the country. That will pump up the GDP, par capita income type of data which can bring a ?feel-good? factor during election. A country should be analyzed by the way it treats its weakest section of the society, not by how elites live there, just like the strength of a chain is measured by the strength of its weakest link.
You are correct in your assertion that short term gains are largely what is driving the current trends in many places, not only in India. "A country should be analyzed by the way it treats its weakest section of the society..."And in there lies the rub; in smaller nations with almost homogeneous population, conditions can be better but none of the large nations ever treated their weakest segments of society with compassion or equality and I doubt that they ever will, regardless of the lip-service around the election time!