KARACHI, Aug 17: Like most of the developing countries, Pakistan also needs to implement laws to avoid risks associated with medical and clinical research involving human lives, public health and environment.

This was stated at a four-day symposium and workshop on “Ethical issues in health research” at Aga Khan University.

Speakers observed that vulnerability of developing countries and their inhabitants, in the backdrop of the poor socio-economic condition, enhanced the urgency to see that the situation was not exploited.

“This potential of exploitation becomes even more pronounced when externally funded research is conducted on subjects of the developing world,” commented Dr Aamer Jaffery, Coordinator for Pakistan Bioethics Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, AKU.

Under the given situation, Dr Jaffery maintained that research ethics is prerequisite to avoid possibility of exploitation.

Speaking at the inaugural session, President Aga Khan University Dr Shamsh Kassim Lakha said that even in Europe and the US, abuse and unethical behaviour in the context of medical and clinical research was yet to be eliminated.

“Thus it should not be totally surprising that researchers in developing countries do not widely subscribe to uniform the code of ethics that protects their research,” he said.

Dr Kassim said that in a country like Pakistan, where much of the medical research was linked with clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical industry, it was observed that many of the drug trails were conducted in an environment generally devoid of ethical reviewing bodies or regulatory mechanisms.

He regretted that there were also not enough institutions in Pakistan or elsewhere in the developing world that currently provide formal training in bioethics.

In his keynote address, Dr Carel B. Ijsselmuiden from South African Research Ethics Training Initiative of Pretoria University, underscored the need to develop capacity building and making ethics workable in accordance to the actual conditions of any country.—APP