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Two doctors of the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Trivandrum, who blew the lid on the controversial trial of an untested drug on 27 unsuspecting cancer patients, have sought police protection fearing attacks.
V P Gangadharan and V M Bhattathiri said they have requested the police chief as well as the police station in the RCC neighbourhood to provide security to them at the hospital as they feared attacks by a section of the staff.
A controversy has raged in Kerala for several months over the unethical trials at the RCC during 1999-2000 of a chemical M4N, which is a derivative of NDGA, a drug banned by the Food and Drug Administration department of the United States of America.
Two separate inquiries have been ordered by the state and the central governments into the trials.
A preliminary finding by the state's one-man inquiry commission has revealed that Baltimore-based John Hopkins University (JHU) had funded the clinical trials of M4N at the RCC.
The world famous varsity had earlier denied any role in the controversy after it was alleged that it had sponsored the trial of M4N, which was developed by a team of JHU researchers headed by Ru Chi Huang.
Bhattathiri was the first to lodge a formal complaint with the Kerala Human Rights Commission against the controversial tests, which he alleged were conducted in violation of all medical norms and ethics: neither was the nature of the drug explained to the patients nor their consent taken before they were injected with the drugs.
Later, Gangadharan also came out in the open against the RCC for the surreptitious trials.
"Some employees with the backing of top officials of the RCC have been trying to create problems for me at the hospital. On Thursday evening, I was able to escape a possible attack after work as I sneaked out of the hospital using an uncommon exit."
"Later, I came to know that a few employees, who were suspected of warning me, were threatened," Gangadharan said on Friday.
He said Bhattathiri has submitted a separate complaint to the police.
The RCC Protection Action Forum, a group owing allegiance to beleaguered RCC director M Krishnan Nair, has demanded disciplinary action against the two doctors, alleging that they were members of a charitable society for cancer patients, in contravention of their employment rules.
"They are trying to divert attention from the real issues. I joined the society so that I could continue my charitable work, which I have been doing for years," said Gangadharan.
Meanwhile, opposition leader V S Achuthanandan has slammed Chief Minister A K Antony for his concern about the damage to RCC's reputation following the controversial trials.
He said Antony should be more concerned about clearing the doubts over the RCC.
His views have been echoed by a number of political parties and social organisations, and some have even demanded that the RCC director be kept out of office till the doubts are cleared.
Indo-Asian News Service
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