Drug trial goes awry, leaves one brain dead, five critically ill
One person is brain-dead while five others are in critical condition after participating in a drug trial for an unnamed pharmaceutical firm in France on Thursday.
The trial which took place in the western city of Rennes was conducted by Biotrial, a French-based international company which has carried out thousands of trials since it was set up in 1989, BBC reports.
The drug is reported to be a painkiller containing cannabinoids, an active ingredient found in cannabis plants but the health ministry denies the fact.
The health ministry says the accident occurred on Thursday.
According to The Guardian, Health minister, Marisol Touraine, said the six had been taking part in a “trial of an oral medication being developed by a European laboratory”.
Healthy volunteers took the medication to “evaluate the safety of its use, tolerance and pharmacological profile of the molecule, in the phase one clinical trial, Touraine is quoted to have said.
Had the first stage been successful the drug would have had to pass through two more stages.
The trial has been suspended and the firm is recalling the volunteers, BBC reports..
