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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

SC Issues Notice to Centre, PATH on Clinical Trials Monday Nov 11,2013

The Supreme Court on Monday Nov 11,2013 issued notice to the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), an international NGO working in the health sector, on a PIL alleging that it indulged in unethical conduct of clinical trials in collaboration with ICMR between 2009-10 in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
A bench comprising Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi also sought a response from the central and state governments on the petition filed by Sama, an NGO which works in the field on feminist activism and health.
The bench tagged the case with other petitions on clinical trials being heard by a different bench.
The petitioner alleged that there were serious failures on the part of PATH and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in complying with legal and ethical requirements to obtain written ‘informed’ consent and it caused serious adverse events. 
“The Ethics Committees failed in their duty to protect the rights of trial participants by allowing the trial to be conducted in young girls from socio-economically backward families and where medical facilities were poor or non-existent,” the petition said, adding, “The current ethical and legal framework to protect subjects of clinical trials is grossly inadequate and needs to be re-examined.” 

About Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are sets of tests in Medical Research and Drug Development that generate safety and efficacy data (or more specifically, information about adverse drug reactions  and adverse effects of other treatments) for health interventions (e.g., drugs, diagnostics, devices, therapy protocols). They are conducted only after satisfactory information has been gathered on the quality of the nonclinical safety, and health authority/ethics committee approval is granted in the country where approval of the drug or device is sought.


 

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