NHRC seeks Madhya Pradesh report on drug trials

The National Human Rights Commission took cognizance of a TOI report about clinical trials of a sexual dysfunction drug conducted by Indore’s government doctors on mentally-ill patients in private clinics. The commission issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh chief secretary asking him to submit a report within four weeks.

The NHRC also directed the chief secretary to inform if the doctors followed ICMR guidelines while getting approval for the trials from independent ethics committees attached to private hospitals.

The NHRC also sought details of the nature of drugs tested on the mentally-ill and asked to specify if any survey was conducted on the health status of mentally-ill patients. Chief secretary Avni Vaishya told principal secretary (health) D K Samantre and director of medical education Dr S C Tiwari to report about the trials in 48 hours.

TOI had reported earlier on how clinical trials were conducted on 233 patients from a mental hospital attached to Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Indore. Dapoxetine, a drug to cure premature ejaculation, was tested on 42 of them.