Have India's Poor Become Human Guinea Pigs?

Have India's Poor Become Human Guinea Pigs?
Homeless Indians rest under an overpass in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Already the second most populous country, with 1.2 billion people, India is expected to overtake China around 2030 when its population soars to an estimated 1.6 billion even as hundreds of millions of people are trapped in abject poverty. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
Homeless Indians rest under an overpass in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Already the second most populous country, with 1.2 billion people, India is expected to overtake China around 2030 when its population soars to an estimated 1.6 billion even as hundreds of millions of people are trapped in abject poverty. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

Drug companies are facing mounting pressure to investigate reports that new medicines are being tested on some of the poorest people in India without their knowledge.

"We were surprised," Nitu Sodey recalls about taking her mother-in-law Chandrakala Bai to Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore in May 2009.

"We are low-caste people and normally when we go to the hospital we are given a five-rupee voucher, but the doctor said he would give us a foreign drug costing 125,000 rupees (£1,400)."

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