Drug firms ponder ethics of human trials offshored to India

[elehhhhna]

Drug firms ponder ethics of human trials offshored to India
By S. SRINIVASAN Associated Press Writer

(AP) - BANGALORE, India-The battalions of India's software engineers and call center executives are not the only recipients of Western outsourcing - thousands of Indians are being tapped by Western pharmaceutical companies for trials of drugs under development.

With more than 1 billion people, India provides a huge pool of potential trial subjects, meaning tests could be organized quickly, and costs are lower than in the developed world.



But while India's outsourcing industry is excited over the new opportunity, some ethical questions have also risen, such as whether poor or sick Indians might be duped into taking drugs they don't understand, reducing them to Third World human guinea pigs.

"India can earn US$1 billion (?770 million) each year by 2010 from clinical trials," said D. A. Prasanna, vice chairman and managing director of Manipal Acunova, one of the growing number of Indian companies that conduct clinical trials subcontracted by Western firms.

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/05-03-2005/b7a4002c4cf0a45a.html

[lostnfound]

1. This is disgusting in its possibilities. nt

[KG]

2. this is BS - drug co. have no ethics to ponder.