Mass Grave of Dead Babies in Ireland Used as Guinea Pigs for Pharmaceutical Company

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32. Have you asked yourself how pharmaceuticals are tested today?

In 2008, the Indian Uday Foundation published a controversial list. In it, the children's aid organization identified the names of every medicine that had been tested by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Within two and a half years, 49 babies died in the hospital during clinical studies.

Among the various substances tested on children was the anti-hypertensive drug Valsartan. The compound was produced by the Swiss manufacturer Novartis. The company denies all culpability in the deaths. "The children that participated in the tests were very ill. It cannot be determined that administering Valsartan was the cause of death for any of these patients," says Novartis spokesman Michael Schiendorfer. Would similar tests have been possible in Germany or Switzerland? How would the public react if babies had died at a clinic in Basel or Frankfurt?

International drug manufacturers regularly avoid such questions -- while sending their new substances around the world to be tested. India, Brazil, Russia and China are all popular destination countries.

Several studies indicate that more than half of all drug trials worldwide take place in newly industrialized countries. Not only are the studies cheaper to carry out there, but many participants are thankful that they are being cared for in any way at all. The companies are lured by the prospect that established international standards are less stringently applied than they are in Western Europe, Japan or the United States.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/drug-companies-perform-medical-tests-in-developing-countries-a-899798.html