India Continues To Be Hub for Clinical Trials

The health secretary stressed the importance of clinical trials on humans, saying, "During the last 40 years, about 900 drug molecules of different therapeutic categories have been approved for marketing in India. Out of these 900, only seven drug molecules have been discovered and approved in India. Rest of them are discovered and developed in other countries like U.S., EU, Japan after going through complex process of research and drug development including clinical trial in human beings," as reported TNN.

However, in another instance, in a reply to an RTI, the office of drug controller general, ministry of family health and welfare, gave a list of deaths to the plaintiff during clinical trials. It revealed that 40 patients died from 2008 to 2011 during clinical trials in Rajasthan. Most of the patients in the state died during clinical trials, and were suffering from cancer, heart ailments and gastro related problems. It was noted that the state witnessed a huge number of deaths due to clinical trials.

But in a move to stop unethical clinical trials, the informed consent will soon have to be audio-visually recorded in order to safeguard the interests of patients in clinical trials. The move is to make sure that patients are not enlisted without sufficient information and counseling about the pros and cons of a drug trial.

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