Corporal lab – Clinical trials sustain Ahmedabad’s Riot Victims

November 29th, 2008

Clinical trials sustain Ahmedabad’s riot victims

When her husband took chronically ill after communal riots drove them to Juhapura, a ghetto on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, poverty made life seem unmanageable. Free will then became a matter of Rs 8,000 for 40-year-old Zainab Bi. For a sum like that she was willing to swallow an unknown pill once in three months. It wasn’t much they were asking for really, so she gladly gave her thumb impression on the dotted line.

For companies researching new drugs the thumb impression was proof that Bi submitted herself to the experiment of her own free will. It was far more expensive to have such proof in countries where the multinational drug companies that sponsored the research had their headquarters. They were far more cumbersome, involved lengthy documentation and rigorous insurance plans. Clinical research organizations (cros) made the task far easier for these companies by carrying out their research in the ghettoes of India’s big cities. Drug trial was far less daunting; and inexpensive. People were more than willing to offer their bodies for bio-chemical experimentation. The official guidelines warned against monetary inducement. Continue reading »

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“AIDS Came to US from Haiti” Say Researchers from University of Arizona

December 30th, 2007

The US has found a new target. Now it says aids came to its shores from Haiti. Researchers from the University of Arizona say gene sequences from the blood specimens collected in 1982–1983 from Haitian aids patients suggest the disease came from Haiti in the 1960′s. The study also reveals most of the aids viruses in the us can be traced to one person from Haiti. Continue reading »

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