Indian Govt After Scientists Who Worked on Superbug

New Delhi: The government’s licensing authority for medical drugs has served notices on the Indian scientists involved in the ‘superbug’ study published last month, asking them to explain how they collected samples for the research and transported them abroad.

The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal published the study on a new 'superbug' identified in several patients who had travelled to India for medical treatment, and said there were virtually no drugs to treat it. An international team of researchers, including eight scientists working in Indian institutions, isolated a gene called 'New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase', or NDM-1, which they said makes bacteria resistant to even the most powerful class of antibiotics called 'carbapenems'.

The study was trashed by the Indian government and members of Parliament, who took offence to the name 'New Delhi', and suggested the study was an attempt by vested interests to hurt medical tourism in India.

Now, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has sent letters to the Indian scientists in the research team, asking for details about the "form and manner adopted in collecting human and biological material from various sites within the country and transferring them or exporting them to another country".

The scientists have been given 15 days to list the rules, regulations and guidelines they followed while carrying out the study.

Dr V M Katoch, chairman of the screening committee under the Health Ministry, said the Indian scientists did not seek the mandatory government permission before collaborating with international scientists.

"The records show that no permission was taken to conduct such study by the scietists," Katoch said.

Karthikeyan K Kumarasamy of the Department of Microbiology, Dr A L M Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (PGIBMS) at the University of Madras, confirmed having received the DCGI notice.

"We are discussing the matter with our superiors and other scientists involved in the study," said Kumarasamy, the lead Indian author of the paper. "Some of the isolates were exported, but we did not know that we were to take any permission. We will sit together and send them a reply soon."

Another scientist who is at the Banaras Hindu University and was involved in the study, said, "The government is asking the wrong questions to the wrong people. Most of the processing was done in laboratories here. We did not export the isolates to any other country."

Scientists based in five Indian cities were involved in the study: University of Madras and Apollo Hospital in Chennai; Pandit B D Sharma P-G Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak, Haryana; Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, Kerala; Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkata, and BHU, Varanasi.

Source: The Indian Express