The trailer for a Bollywood medical thriller, ‘Umeed’ #IndianLivesMatter, was recently launched. The film, which is based on unethical or illegal drug trials, reportedly carried out in India on a massive scale, is inspired by true events.
The makers of Umeed chose to launch the trailer with Managing Trustee of the Sambhavna Clinic, Satinath Sarangi, along with victims of unethical medical trials.
Sarangi on launching the trailer said, “The reason I chose to be here today is because I think Umeed is a movie with a very important message. Our kids are being treated as guinea pigs. It is time it stops. Umeed exposes the powerful nexus behind it.”
In 2011, UK newspaper The Independent exposed how drugs companies had: ‘seized on India over the past five years as a testing ground for drugs – making the most of a huge population and loose regulations which help dramatically cut research costs for lucrative products to be sold in the West.’
The article revealed: ‘The use by drug companies of survivors of the world’s worst poisonous gas disaster in Bhopal as “guinea pigs” in at least 11 trials without proper informed consent.’
A subsequent article in the Independent went into detail on the trails carried out on gas victims in Bhopal: ‘In another of the three trials, an antibiotic study carried out by Quintiles on behalf of Wyeth, now a part of Pfizer, 32 out of 34 patients were gas victims. Participants in the “Tiger” trial suffered five “serious adverse events” and three deaths. The deaths were classed as “unrelated” to the investigational drug without independent or laboratory tests, and were not eligible for compensation.’
More on the launch of Umeed: http://businessofcinema.com/bollywood_news/umeed-trailer-launch-indias-first-medical-thriller/409590
