While on one hand a debate has been raging on the need for clinical trials of drugs on human beings, there is another equally important side to the issue that experts claim has been continuously pushed under the carpet.
Trial and experiments on animals were banned in educational institutions after the UGC’s guidelines in 2011. However, activists feel that a lot more can be done to ban clinical trials on animals as well.
According to Dr B K Sharma, member of the UGC-appointed ‘Core Expert Committee to Consider Discontinuation of Dissection of Animals in Zoology/ Life Science in Indian Universities and Colleges’, the issue of clinical trials of drugs on animals is as unethical and callous as it is on humans.
“Some of the animal systems respond to drugs just as humans do.
“Owing to the common misconception that the value of human life is far greater than that of animals like guinea pigs, we continue to sacrifice them to save human lives. Animals cannot and should not be treated as second-grade or inferior to humans in any way. In the recommendations proposed, we have tried to streamline the process of clinical trials on animals. We have recommended a national-level task force be constituted to harmonise the use of laboratory animals that should comprise broader representation including the laboratory animal science associations,” Sharma told Express.
He urged the compilation of data on the use of laboratory animals to know the actual extent of consumption of laboratory animals in the country.