Delegates from across India deliberated on weighty ethical issues, responsibilities and review procedures of Institute Ethics committees and ethical touchstone of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at a workshop on bioethics hosted by Jipmer’s Division of Research and Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Jipmer, Puducherry.
S.C. Parija, director, Jipmer, in his inaugural address, said that in medical research it is very important that the procedures strictly adhere to ethical guidelines and norms.
The research initiatives at Jipmer are subject to legal boundaries and ethical values, he said.
Among those who participated were Vishnu Bhat, Dean Research, Steven A. Dkhar, professor and Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Nandini Kumar, former Deputy Director-General, ICMR, C. Adithan, director, Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Research, MGMCRI, Puducherry, and Melvin George, assistant professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and IEC, member, SRM institute of medical sciences, Chennai.
Speakers from Jipmer included Kadambari. D, professor of surgery, IEC Member Secretary, Jipmer, Medha, additional professor, Department of Biochemistry, and S. Sandhiya, assistant professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacology.
The other topics covered include special groups as research participants, clinical evaluation of vaccines, devices/diagnostics and herbal drugs, ethical guidelines for regulatory clinical trials and general ethical guidelines for biobank / repository.
An overview on ICMR ethical guidelines 2006 vs 2016 was a key theme.
About 75 delegates attended the workshop, including 55 faculty members and 20 students, from all over India.