Andrei Usatii: No experiments, but clinical trial
- 12.10.2012 16:12
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Health Minister Andrei Usatii says Moldovan medical institutions don't conduct experiments on patients, but run third-stage clinical trials, which indicate that Moldova has reached certain international standards. The remark comes after the Communist group summoned Usatii to appear before Parliament for questions over allegations of illegal experiments on mental patients.
“The Communists summon me for hearings quite a lot. I have already offered explanations on these clinical tests. They are conducted in strict conformity with the Moldovan legislation. Roughly 140,000 such trials are run each year globally. For example, the United States runs 70,000 clinical trials annually, Germany runs 9,000, and Moldova only 40 trials a year. It is an honor for us to have reached the standards that allow us to support such tests”, said Minister Usatii.
The Minister specified that these are not experiments, but third-stage tests. “These are drugs which are already in use and which need some further testing on certain blood components. These are not experiments with unknown preparations”.
Usatii was summoned before Parliament following findings of an NGO called Moldova Mea, which reported that 220 patients at the National Psychiatry Hospital had been subjected to illegal and unconsented drug development experiments commissioned by a Romanian company.
