Saumil’s Babble Belt

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.

I was casually munching away on my food, when a BBC news report shook my nerves ! We have all known India as an Outsourcing heaven, but how many of us have seen the dark side of outsourced patients?

With the pharma industry booming and the competition getting fiercer by the day, its only natural for these companies to put in more research work and come up with the latest ‘wonder drug’ ! But, before any of the medications can reach the markets(and make these companies millions) they need to be tested. Not just verified for content, but tested on animals, and a small sample of humans as well ! This is exactly where a typically poor and ignorant Indian comes into picture … only to be disguised as a guinea pig !

According to a study, by 2010, some estimate there will be two million patients in India on clinical trials. An entire industry has sprung up, specialising in recruiting patients and managing experiments. And a BBC investigation into the conduct of these trials has found that some patients are unaware they are being experimented on at all.

One Dr.Shashank Joshi says … “Most of the patients sign on the dotted line without understanding the nature and the consequences of what is being administered to them”

I was shocked to see people from Kerela, Gujarat and elsewhere being used as mere test objects. What was more painful, was to hear thier stories. For e.g. An old psychiatric patient Mr.Parmar from Ahmedabad, says “I was just told that the drugs were American. They used to give me the tablets and I used to eat them, We just sign because I believe the doctor takes the signature to help us. That’s why I sign it.”

Commentary : I could very well understand the local dialect spoken by Mr. Parmar (Gujarati) and it was shocking to know that these poor people (who also are ignorant) put all their trust and faith in the doctor. Parmar kept referring to the doctor as ’saheb’ (tranlates to sir, gives respect) and tells that had he known about the fact that he was being experimented upon, he probably would have refused.

In the interview, Parmar clearly says he had no idea that he was part of a clinical trial.

“I didn’t know that experiments were being carried out on me. I was told that the old drugs were discontinued and were no longer available in the pharmacies.

“I don’t know a lot about all these things. I am poor and I live in a small hut and I don’t understand many things. The doctors are intelligent. They write the drugs for me so I have to take them accordingly.”

Parmar isn’t the only one, Mr. Trivedi, yet another patient has a similar story to tell. And then there is a story about a guy from Kerela who used to be as strong as a body builder (according to her wife) and is now fragile beyond belief.

Check out the BBC- This World video and special coverage of the whole issue …

* Drug trials outsourced to India
* Video : Entire Coverage - 60 mins

[tags]patient outsourcing, drug trails, BBC story on This World, abusing the poor, drug trails in india [/tags]

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