The parliamentary standing committee on health expressed “shock” over the “continued inaction” on the part of the Union health ministry on the earlier report of the committee that suggested that many drugs were approved in the country without having undergone clinical trials to check for their safety. Condemning the ministry’s action, the committee said that this shows that there was an “intention to save the guilty”.
Following last year’s report on the functioning of Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO), the health ministry in its response had constituted a three-member expert committee. However, in its recent report, the standing committee while examining the replies of the government concluded it as being “evasive, inconclusive, dilatory and vague”.
“The committee is hugely disappointed to observe that the government has done nothing concrete which directly concern the safety and health of crores of countrymen. The submissions confirm the intent of the government in staggering decisions and action on vital matters either by the way of referring the matters to committees after committees or evolving time-consuming policies. The committee deprecates this tendency of the government in strongest terms,” said the report.
The parliamentary standing committee in its earlier report had suggested that a total of 31 new drugs were approved in the period of January 2008 to October 2010 without conducting clinical trials on Indian patients. While, the ministry decided to refer the matter to the experts, the standing committee expressed shock over the government’s lukewarm response.
“The ministry inspite of appreciating the serious problem continued to allow marketing of these drugs. Even after the earlier report, nothing concrete have been suggested by the three-member expert committee. The government intends to delay indefinitely the decisions and consequent actions that would be required to be taken against several officials who have indulged in rampant acts of omission while approving these drugs in gross violation of the law. The committee takes strong objection to these dilatory tactics and recommends immediate decision on these proven gross violations,” it added.