This refers to the report “Pharma majors under fire over trial compensation” (May 5). It is not surprising to see that pharmaceutical majors are able to avoid the liability of compensating the victims of clinical trials. First, there are no regulations worth the name and the ones in force are not implemented.
How can we allow these companies to argue that the death of a volunteer in a clinical trial could be due to an “underlying disease”? Companies should not be allowed to make such an excuse. Don’t they check the health of a person before accepting him or her as a volunteer? Does it require a parliamentary panel to investigate this matter? Are there no officers who can be made accountable for the proper implementation of the regulations?
It is completely reasonable to revoke the licences of companies that do not compensate victims of clinical trials. After all, it is for this that these companies come to India — knowing well that they can escape the responsibility of compensating victims of clinical testing despite the rules in force.
J L Jawahar, Hyderabad
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