Victims of clinical trial of drugs granted only Rs 12 cr as compensation in 7 yrs

Thrissur: A total of Rs 12 crore was given within 7 years as compensation for the people who are suffering from side effects after experimenting new medicines on them. However, allegations intensified that the authorities are not making any fair move in this matter. The matter became a topic of discussion in the backdrop of COVID vaccine trial.

As India is a major market and factory of new medicines, the number of clinical trials also are increasing day by day. According to the documents submitted in the parliament in 2015, permission was granted for 859 experiments. This rose to 3869 by 2018. As per laws, ethics committees should be appointed to study the side effects of the medicines and take further actions.

However, the interest in granting permission to experiments is not seen in the formation of ethic committees. There were only 130 ethics committees when permission was granted for 859 clinical trials. However, when the number of trials rose to 3869, the number of committees was only 330.

According to the figures of three years, a total of 1443 persons lost lives after being part of clinical trials. However, the ethics committees stated that only 88 of them died due to the after effects of medicines. Only 66 of them were provided compensation, the report stated.

Many people faced injuries or physical deformities due to the clinical trial. But none of them were given any compensation. It is said that the structural limitations of the Drugs Control General Office affect formation of ethics committees and further steps.

A webinar was conducted by the health organisations after complaints arose regarding the COVID vaccine trials of the Serum Institute. Doubts and questions regarding experiments of medicines and its side effects were raised in the webinar.

Responding to this, Drugs Controller General V G Somani presented the estimate of the figures of 7 years. However, he did not explain the data in detail. He stated that many ethics committees are not functioning as per the laws and added that action was taken against 10-15 committees.