CRO

UPDATED: ACRO India speaks out against report of video recording clinical trials

ACRO India is casting doubt over a Pharmabiz article that claims efforts to video record clinical trials in the country were sprung by the umbrella organization, but in its response manages not to confirm or deny any involvement.

"ACRO India wish to categorically state that at no point of time ACRO made any comments--direct or indirect--regarding a Pharmabiz report on videographing trial process to improve their public image," the organization said in a statement to FierceCRO.

Calling the Pharmbiz report "erroneous," ACRO India officials claimed they were never contacted to comment on the story. But then Pharmbiz never said the organization had commented. Its story, which pinpointed ACRO India as the catalyst for the video taping, was attributed to unnamed sources. It says that in an effort to rehab the image of Indian CROs after some damaging news reports tarnished them, some there have begun documenting the clinical trial process from start to finish. The article claims that effort includes video recording everything from subject recruitment to administration of the drugs, something ACRO India declined to specifically comment on. 

The reported efforts come two months after NBC's "Dateline" aired an investigative piece that showed two Indian CROs--Lambda Therapeutic Research and Synchron Research Services--willing to conduct trials on a drug and compensate subjects only a fraction of what they would receive in the West. The undercover team from "Dateline" also told the CROs that the drug was a copy of Vioxx, the once-promising pain medication that resulted in the deaths of thousands.

Story updated to include comments from ACRO India.

- read the story from Pharmabiz