Centre likely to direct RCC to suspend experiments

P. Sunderarajan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 8. The controversy over the trial of an anti- cancer drug at the Regional Cancer Centre at Thiruvananthapuram has taken a new turn, with the high-powered team that was set up by the Union Health Ministry to probe the incident upholding allegations that the scientists involved in the trial had not followed the rules properly.

According to highly placed sources in the Union Health Ministry, the Central team has found clear evidence that the scientists involved in the experiment had not got the necessary permissions before commencement of the trial.

The Ministry has consequently decided to ask the institute to suspend all its experiments involving clinical trials on human subjects for six months and to reconstitute its institutional ethics committee. A notice in this regard would be sent to the Institute in a couple of days. The Ministry has also decided to adopt the ethical guidelines on biomedical research issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research in September last year and to immediately circulate it to all medical research institutions.

In other words, the guidelines, which were till now applicable to only ICMR institutes, will now be applicable all medical research institutions in the country. Further, it has decided to make the rules relating to clearance for clinical trials more stringent.

According to sources in the Ministry, the Central team had, among other things, found that the drugs that was under trial at the Thiruvananthapuram Centre had been brought to India ``surreptitiously'' by a woman scientist of the Institute. The drug had been developed by a scientist at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA.

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Section  : Southern States
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