Funny thing, my parents used to (& still do) tell me about these kinds of things; pharma companies like Merck, Pfizer, GSK etc doing human drug testing in developing countries, & I used to think that doesn't happen & filed it under "old folks talking conspiracy". Well, I accept that I was wrong.
It's ironic that Western-based NGOs, companies in every industry you can think of, & sports organizations (from NFL to NBA to FIFA to ICC) all pledge & are supposedly working towards ending racism & discrimination.
How would you characterize these drugs testing then? Discrimination against poor? Racism (making "coloured" kids human guinea pigs, just so a large number of kids of a certain skin colour are safe in developed countries)? Exploitation of a poor & uneducated class in a developing country just so people in developed countries remain oblivious to this abhorrent practice?
Now, these multi-billion $$$ international biopharma companies will fight these lawsuits, stating that laws in developing countries let them do these drugs testing. So, in essence, what they did is legal in that respective country. But remember what Edward Snowden says: "What is right is not always the same as what is legal."
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Children as young as nine suffered side-effects after being used as unwitting human guinea pigs for a new multi-billion pound anti-cervical cancer drug, it has been claimed.
The new anti-cancer drug has just been approved for use in the US & is due to be released in Britain this year.
But MailOnline has learned that several of the children used as 'guinea pigs' for the drug trial in India reported suffering problems including weight loss, fatigue, dizziness & menstrual problems.
They & their parents claim they had no idea they were being used to test out Gardasil 9, which was then an untried drug.
Drug firms are already facing claims that they exploited children in the developing world to develop the vaccine.
Merck, which makes Gardasil 9, faces a hearing in India's Supreme Court over the alleged use of young girls from poor tribal communities in trials of an earlier anti-cervical cancer drug.
It also involves the Cervarix vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline, along with US-based health non-profit organisation PATH, which organised the trials with the backing of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
7 girls died before the trials were halted, although those involved deny the deaths were linked to the vaccines.
... trials conducted on children in the Indian city of Indore that, according to an affidavit lodged with the Supreme Court, were both illegal & unethical.
The affidavit, submitted to the court as part of the public interest litigation over the earlier drug trials, claimed that:
• None of those involved were told that they were taking part in a drug trial
• Middlemen acted as touts to recruit patients
• Parents were lied to & told their children would be getting a successful foreign medicine
• Those involved targeted the poor & vulnerable
• Children who suffered health problems received no health care or compensation
Whether by accident or design, many of those who agreed to let their children take part in the trial were poor & illiterate.
Some, like the Dhawans, also noticed changes in their children - late periods, dizziness & weakness. They had something else in common too: they say they had no idea they were taking part in a trial of a new anti-cervical cancer vaccine.
Muskan & Akash Hansari both had the injections, but their father told researchers working for the group behind the Supreme Court case that he was led to believe that it would prevent all sicknesses & illness in general.
'[He has] no idea as to what cervical cancer is. Doesn't know what a uterus is let alone where it is located,' the researchers noted in a report compiled to support the Supreme Court affidavit.
Shaurya Mishra's father told the researchers the family felt 'short changed & cheated' by the doctors after the 14-year-old was signed up for the trials. He was told the vaccine would prevent cervical cancer but confessed he did not know what this was.
'He felt bad that American companies try their vaccines out on Indians & then those same vaccines are given to the Americans to benefit them while the Indians are just used as guinea pigs.'
The activists behind the court challenge include veteran women's campaigner Kalpanna Mehta & Dr. Anand Rai, a doctor who has campaigned for years against drug trials.
'Even when they [Indians] know it is wrong they don't want to fight. We still live in a country where they think doctors are gods. There are no risks [for the drug companies] here.'
'Some people are unhappy with me,' he [Dr. Rai] says. 'They chose poor groups, weaker groups, illiterate groups, those who needed medicine at any cost. They are poor. They have to rely on these doctors, they have to rely on government hospitals because they don't have any option.
'International companies use Indians as guinea pigs.'
Over the past decade, drug trials have become a £300 million a year business in India. In 2003, there were fewer than 50 clinical trials running in India, but the number increased rapidly as pharmaceutical firms realised that costs were up to 60% lower in India than in the US. By 2011, there were 1,852 trials registered with the government, involving an estimated 150,000 patients.
In March 2013 India's health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad revealed that 2,868 people had died since 2005 in government-approved drug trials.
It's ironic that Western-based NGOs, companies in every industry you can think of, & sports organizations (from NFL to NBA to FIFA to ICC) all pledge & are supposedly working towards ending racism & discrimination.
How would you characterize these drugs testing then? Discrimination against poor? Racism (making "coloured" kids human guinea pigs, just so a large number of kids of a certain skin colour are safe in developed countries)? Exploitation of a poor & uneducated class in a developing country just so people in developed countries remain oblivious to this abhorrent practice?
Now, these multi-billion $$$ international biopharma companies will fight these lawsuits, stating that laws in developing countries let them do these drugs testing. So, in essence, what they did is legal in that respective country. But remember what Edward Snowden says: "What is right is not always the same as what is legal."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Children as young as nine suffered side-effects after being used as unwitting human guinea pigs for a new multi-billion pound anti-cervical cancer drug, it has been claimed.
The new anti-cancer drug has just been approved for use in the US & is due to be released in Britain this year.
But MailOnline has learned that several of the children used as 'guinea pigs' for the drug trial in India reported suffering problems including weight loss, fatigue, dizziness & menstrual problems.
They & their parents claim they had no idea they were being used to test out Gardasil 9, which was then an untried drug.
Drug firms are already facing claims that they exploited children in the developing world to develop the vaccine.
Merck, which makes Gardasil 9, faces a hearing in India's Supreme Court over the alleged use of young girls from poor tribal communities in trials of an earlier anti-cervical cancer drug.
It also involves the Cervarix vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline, along with US-based health non-profit organisation PATH, which organised the trials with the backing of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
7 girls died before the trials were halted, although those involved deny the deaths were linked to the vaccines.
... trials conducted on children in the Indian city of Indore that, according to an affidavit lodged with the Supreme Court, were both illegal & unethical.
The affidavit, submitted to the court as part of the public interest litigation over the earlier drug trials, claimed that:
• None of those involved were told that they were taking part in a drug trial
• Middlemen acted as touts to recruit patients
• Parents were lied to & told their children would be getting a successful foreign medicine
• Those involved targeted the poor & vulnerable
• Children who suffered health problems received no health care or compensation
Whether by accident or design, many of those who agreed to let their children take part in the trial were poor & illiterate.
Some, like the Dhawans, also noticed changes in their children - late periods, dizziness & weakness. They had something else in common too: they say they had no idea they were taking part in a trial of a new anti-cervical cancer vaccine.
Muskan & Akash Hansari both had the injections, but their father told researchers working for the group behind the Supreme Court case that he was led to believe that it would prevent all sicknesses & illness in general.
'[He has] no idea as to what cervical cancer is. Doesn't know what a uterus is let alone where it is located,' the researchers noted in a report compiled to support the Supreme Court affidavit.
Shaurya Mishra's father told the researchers the family felt 'short changed & cheated' by the doctors after the 14-year-old was signed up for the trials. He was told the vaccine would prevent cervical cancer but confessed he did not know what this was.
'He felt bad that American companies try their vaccines out on Indians & then those same vaccines are given to the Americans to benefit them while the Indians are just used as guinea pigs.'
The activists behind the court challenge include veteran women's campaigner Kalpanna Mehta & Dr. Anand Rai, a doctor who has campaigned for years against drug trials.
'Even when they [Indians] know it is wrong they don't want to fight. We still live in a country where they think doctors are gods. There are no risks [for the drug companies] here.'
'Some people are unhappy with me,' he [Dr. Rai] says. 'They chose poor groups, weaker groups, illiterate groups, those who needed medicine at any cost. They are poor. They have to rely on these doctors, they have to rely on government hospitals because they don't have any option.
'International companies use Indians as guinea pigs.'
Over the past decade, drug trials have become a £300 million a year business in India. In 2003, there were fewer than 50 clinical trials running in India, but the number increased rapidly as pharmaceutical firms realised that costs were up to 60% lower in India than in the US. By 2011, there were 1,852 trials registered with the government, involving an estimated 150,000 patients.
In March 2013 India's health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad revealed that 2,868 people had died since 2005 in government-approved drug trials.
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