{"id":2703,"date":"2008-08-20T15:19:40","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T14:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethicalquote.com\/index.php\/2008\/08\/20\/drug-trials-in-india-under-investigation-after-49-babies-die-at-leading-hospital\/"},"modified":"2008-08-26T15:43:26","modified_gmt":"2008-08-26T14:43:26","slug":"drug-trials-in-india-under-investigation-after-49-babies-die-at-leading-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/2008\/08\/20\/drug-trials-in-india-under-investigation-after-49-babies-die-at-leading-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug trials in India under investigation after 49 babies die at leading hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pro.corbis.com\/images\/RF5357939.jpg?size=572&amp;uid=%7B83585F63-E3B4-4F11-8D08-A6EFE79D51CD%7D\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"080826_glaxosmithkline-joh.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ethicalquote.com\/newTemplate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/080826_glaxosmithkline-joh.jpg\" title=\"080826_glaxosmithkline-joh.jpg\" alt=\"080826_glaxosmithkline-joh.jpg\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a> Forty-nine babies have died in drug tests at one of India\u2019s top hospitals, raising concerns that ethical standards are being compromised as the country becomes the world\u2019s leading destination for clinical trials.The deaths occurred over a period of 30 months at the Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), an elite medical college and public hospital renowned for providing low-cost treatment to the poor.The victims were among the 4,142 infants who were used in a total of 42 clinical trials \u2013 one of the final stages of developing a new drug \u2013 at AIIMS since January 2006, many for Western companies. Of the children used in the trials, 2,728 were aged under a year old.The mortality rate among the babies, many of whom were seriously ill before they became part of the clinical trials, was 1.2 per cent \u2013 significantly below the 4 per cent for all patients treated at the hospital.However the age of those selected for testing has shocked many in India and there are fears that the increasingly lucrative drug-testing industry may be cutting corners because of a shortfall of staff trained in medical ethics and best practice.Manish Tiwari, a spokesperson for the Congress party, which heads India\u2019s coalition Government, said: \u201cThe practice of using infants like guinea-pigs for drug testing must end.\u201dCampaign groups have voiced concerns that the poor, often illiterate, parents who make use of the publicly subsidised healthcare that is available at institutions such as AIIMS do not understand the implications of putting forward children to test new drugs. Image source : pro.corbis.com &gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/world\/asia\/article4568717.ece\" target=\"_blank\">Continue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">News selected by Covalence | Region:<\/span><st1:place><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> India<\/span><\/st1:place><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> | Company<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">:<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ethicalquote.com\/newTemplate\/index.php\/ethicalquote\/?value=8\">GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson &amp; Johnson<\/a><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> | Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Timesonline <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty-nine babies have died in drug tests at one of India\u2019s top hospitals, raising concerns that ethical standards are being compromised as the country becomes the world\u2019s leading destination for clinical trials.The deaths occurred over a period of 30 months at the Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), an elite medical college and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_post_series":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[174,186],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-glaxosmithkline","tag-johnson-johnson","entry","no-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}