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The Supreme Court has termed as “unfortunate” the alleged incidents of humans being treated as “guinea pigs” in ‘illegal’ clinical trials in the country.
Clinical trials are done to ensure that such vaccines, drugs and devices are safe and effective during their use. Two public interest litigations (PILs) alleged that these people, mainly poor and illiterate from the marginalised communities, were being made guinea pigs in ‘illegal and unethical’ clinical trials of vaccines and drugs made by some multinational corporations. It added that these incidents were happening in India due to poor implementation of laws. The apex court on Monday hauled up the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh Government for not filing their replies to these PILs according to its earlier directions by Monday, saying the authorities should have “some sense of responsibility.” The court then asked the Government and the Medical Council of India to file their replies within eight weeks.
The petitioners had asked the court to direct that an expert panel, comprising the All India Drug Action Network and civil society members, look into domestic and international clinical trial law for coming up with suggestions on future foolproof norms. Hearing the PILs, the apex court had, in March, urged the Government to take corrective measures.
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