Fresenius Kabi to pay higher compensation to clinical trial victims

NEW DELHI: Fresenius Kabi Oncology, the Indian arm of Germany's Fresenius Kabi will increase the compensation it paid to families of two volunteers who died during clinical trails of its cancer drug nanoxel.

On Tuesday, EThad reported that the drug maker's payment of Rs 50,000 each to the families of two patients who participated in its clinical trails was the lowest among the compensations paid by several drug companies to 16 clinical trial victims. Ahmedabad-based clinical research organisation Veeda also paid the same amount to a patient who died during trials of its drug code-named MT 102 while Pfizer paid the highest compensation at Rs 5 lakh.

A Fresenius Kabi spokesman said that an initial amount of Rs 50,000 was paid to help the families of the deceased patients as an immediate relief, pending finalisation of the adequate amount by the ethics committee (EC).

"Fresenius Kabi is committed to settle this issue as soon as the EC decides on the compensation amount. We will accordingly pay the balance compensation amount as per the recommendation of EC," he said.

The company has contacted the ethics committee to finalise the adequate compensation, he said.

In India, 483 people died during clinical trials in 2011. But compensation was paid only to 16 volunteers because their deaths were found to be due to clinical trials and not because of other factors such as normal progression of existing illness.