Kerala High Court Judge Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan on Saturday stressed the need for developing a system for monitoring drug trials.
Inaugurating a seminar on drug trial and human rights jointly organised by the Centre for Continuing Legal Education Extension (CCLEE) of the National University of Advanced Legal Studies and Jananeethi, Thrissur, he said that ethical values were not often adhered to while undertaking drug trials. This was because of the commercialisation of the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, there was greater need for setting constitutional and international benchmarks for drug trials.
Informed consent
Presiding over the function, N.K. Jayakumar, Vice-Chancellor of NUALS, said that there should be informed consent from patients on whom drug trials were being conducted. The need for taking informed consent had been emphasised by various international agencies.
Armin Rosencranzo of the Stanford University spoke about the human rights implications of drug trials on vulnerable sections of the population.
He said that there had been an increasing trend of people losing their rights over their bodies for mere monetary compensation. He said that inmates of prisons in the West were often used for drug trials.
N.N. Gokul Das, chairman, Jananeethi, Anoop Kumar Thekkuveetil and Mala Ramanathan of the Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, and Bismi Gopalakrishnan of Department of Law, Kerala University spoke.
