{"id":2919,"date":"2018-11-24T12:22:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T12:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/?p=2919"},"modified":"2023-09-08T09:12:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:12:35","slug":"india-must-not-be-allowed-to-become-a-laboratory-for-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/india-must-not-be-allowed-to-become-a-laboratory-for-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"India must not be allowed to become a laboratory for the world"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Neha Dixit<\/i><\/p>\n
In December, 2011, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh revealed in the central Indian state\u2019s legislative assembly that 233 psychiatric patients in a number of state-run institutions had been used as subjects in a drug trial without their consent. In the next 12 months, a number of them suffered from dementia, lung infections and cardiac arrests. Some also died.<\/p>\n
Mr Chouhan\u2019s speech was an important moment, but it was also just one among many cases that highlight the ways in which multinational pharmaceutical companies exploit some of India\u2019s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.<\/p>\n
Last year, the market for global clinical trials was valued at more than $44 billion. According to recent studies, it is expected to rise to more than $65bn by 2025. The exact amount it brings to the Indian economy is opaque, but the value of the\u00a0Indian pharmaceuticals market<\/a>\u00a0increased from $20.95bn in 2011 to $27.57bn in 2016. Clinical trials are a major driver in this growth.<\/p>\n Owing to rigorously enforced laws relating to consent, payment and healthcare provision for participants, undertaking clinical trials in the developed world is an expensive and complex process. However, pharmaceutical companies operating in India are able to perform trials at around half of the cost they would accrue in Europe or the US.<\/p>\n This is largely thanks to amendments made in 2005 to India\u2019s Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The most significant of these changes removed the requirement for the \u201cphase lag\u201d in clinical trials by multinational companies. Previously, global pharmaceutical firms could only launch clinical trials, which are divided into a number of clearly defined phases, in India, if testing had reached a more advanced phase elsewhere.<\/p>\n This rule was meant to prevent large numbers of Indian people being used as guinea pigs by drug companies. Its removal has opened the country up to the testing of chemical compounds that are not approved as drugs anywhere else in the world and whose potential side effects are not yet known. It has also resulted in a multifold rise in the number of clinical trials being carried out in India.<\/p>\n