The Madhya Pradesh authorities have resumed the probe against 40 local doctors for their alleged role in unethical drug trials. The Director in Medical Education (DME), Dr GS Patel has been appointed as the investigating officer.
Dr Patel while talking to media persons here on Wednesday said, "lokayukta police have asked us to complete the investigation as soon as possible. Today we expedited the probe against four doctors, namely, Salil Bhargav, Ashok Vajpayee, Anil Bharani and Hemant Jain. Probe against other doctors will also be expedited."
Dr Patel further said that the investigation could not be completed because some of the doctors and witnesses did not appear before the investigation officers.
Meanwhile, a Right to Information (RTI) activist, Rajendra Gupta said that he had filed a complaint with lokayukta police against the 40 doctors and handed over hundreds of supporting documents in 2010, but no concrete action was taken.
According to Dr Gupta, these doctors facilitated unethical drug tests on poor patients and accepted foreign junkets funded by pharma companies. The State government, in turn, had promoted some of them, while some retired without any action against them.
Notably, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had ordered an inquiry in the unethical drug trials on February 19, 2012. Over three and a half years since then commissioner for departmental inquiries have failed to conclude investigation in the issue. In 2011, EOW had submitted its report holding doctors responsible on nine counts, including failure to pay compensation in case of death or serious adverse events (SAE), failure to ensure insurance of patients for the full duration of the trials, failure to obtain informed consent of the subjects and of using government facilities and patients for trials undertaken by them in their personal capacities.