Laissez-faire in clinical research has unleashed a ruthless profit-making machine blind to notions of justice or equity. It is time to rein in Big Pharma
IN EARLY 2012, a promising experimental antidepressant failed to make any impression on American patients in last-stage trials, forcing its developer, a small US drug company called Targacept, to call off further research on the drug. The fiasco came as an unexpected shock especially as the drug, labelled TC-5214, had earlier passed with flying colours in trials on Indian patients.
As Targacept and AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharma giant that had agreed to pay as much as US $1.24 billion for exclusive rights to the drug, cursed their luck and licked their wounds, the episode raised fresh stink about the murkiness surrounding clinical trials. In an angry article for thestreet.com, Adam Feuerstein, a much-respected enfant terrible of the drug industry, put the entire blame for the Targacept disaster on offshore trials: “Never trust clinical data from India. Clinical trials conducted in Russia aren’t any more credible, so don’t trust data from there either.”
He might have added to the rogue gallery more countries from Asia and Eastern Europe, like China, Bangladesh, Poland, and Ukraine, which have become hotbeds of clinical trials for Western drug companies in the past two decades. Reliable data on offshore trials are notoriously hard to get because drug companies are not required to report them, but just to give you some idea about the offshore clinical trial mushroom, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the number of trials for drugs meant for the American market rose from a modest 271 in 1990 to a staggering 6,485 in 2008, a spike of over 2,000 per cent! And early in September, an investigation by an online health paper called statnews.com revealed that 90 per cent of new US drugs approved this year were tested at least in part outside the US and Canada.
Denne historien er fra October 1, 2017-utgaven av Down To Earth.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra October 1, 2017-utgaven av Down To Earth.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
In leading role again
MOVIES AND WEB SERIES ARE ONCE AGAIN BEING SET IN RUSTIC BACKGROUNDS, INDICATING A RECONNECT BETWEEN CINEMA AND THE COUNTRYSIDE
One Nation One Subscription comes at a huge cost
As top US universities scrap big deals with top scientific publishers, India’s ONOS scheme seems flawed and outdated
Return of Rambhog
Bid to revive and sell the aromatic indigenous paddy variety has led to substantial profits for farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Terai region
Scarred by mining
Natural springs of Kashmir drying up due to illegal riverbed mining
Human-to-human spread a mutation away
CANADA IN mid-November confirmed its first human case of avian influenza, with a teenager in the British Columbia being hospitalised after contracting the H5N1 virus that causes the disease. The patient developed a severe form of the disease, also called bird flu, and had respiratory issues. There was no known cause of transmission.
True rehabilitation
Residents of Madhya Pradesh's Kakdi village take relocation as an opportunity to undertake afforestation, develop sustainable practices
INESCAPABLE THREAT
Chemical pollution is the most underrated and underreported risk of the 21st century that threatens all species and regions
THAT NIGHT, 40 YEARS AGO
Bhopal gas disaster is a tragedy that people continue to face
A JOKE, INDEED
A CONFERENCE OF IRRESPONSIBLE PARTIES THAT CREATED AN OPTICAL ILLUSION TO THE REALITY OF A NEW CLIMATE
THINGS FALL APART
THE WORLD HAS MADE PROGRESS IN MITIGATING EMISSIONS AND ADAPTING TO CLIMATE IMPACTS. BUT THE PROGRESS REMAINS GROSSLY INADEQUATE
