Pulling up the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh government over the alleged illegal clinical drug trials in the country, the Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over the issue, saying it was ?unfortunate? that humans were being treated as ?guinea pigs?.
Coming down heavily on the state government, a Bench headed by Justice R M Lodha noted that inadequate measures were taken to curb the problem. It pulled up the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government for not filing their response on PILs alleging large-scale illegal drug trials in the state and other parts of the country. ?There has to be some sense of responsibilty… human beings are being treated as guinea pigs. This is unfortunate,? the Bench said, asking the government and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to file replies within eight weeks.
Earlier, the court had in February sought explanation from the central government and MCI on the issue.
The apex court’s observations came on two PILs filed by a group of doctors and an NGO alleging that illegal and unethical clinical trials were being done on poor persons, including minors and they were being used as guinea pigs for testing of drugs and vaccines produced by multinational corporations.
The PILs also alleged the country is being used for illegal clinical trials by pharma MNCs because of laxities in implementation of the laws and such unethical clinical trials sometimes even lead to ?death?.
Pointing out the loophole in laws, Swasthya Adhikar Manch, an NGO, requested the court to make suitable amendments and take stern action against pharma companies violating the rules. The Madhya Pradesh government also argued that drug trial deaths were happening because of certain gaps in central laws.