KARACHI: The National Bioethics Committee of Pakistan (NBC) has refused to allow the placebo-controlled COVID-19 vaccine for Pakistani people. The committee argued that Pakistani citizens are not guinea pigs to be treated for clinical trials. Pakistan Health Authorities argued that the committee can’t allow using the nation as guinea pigs.
According to the information, multiple pharmaceutical companies sent applications that they want to conduct a trial test for placebo-controlled mRNA and COVID-19 vaccines on Pakistani people. The representative of the National Bioethics Committee Pakistan stated that it is ethically wrong to inject a placebo when six types of vaccines have been used on people. According to the experts, Placebo-controlled trials are basically used to test the efficiency of new drugs. It is not very harmful. However, the real-time side effects can’t be predicted before the trial. The experts stated further that a placebo is not recommended for physiological effects. It’s used for patient’s psychological benefits.
That’s why; it is unethical and unwise to inject placebos to different people when six different vaccines are used in Pakistan. It is ethically wrong and the NBC can’t allow for this immoral action. The NBC official mentions the names of all multinational and local pharmaceutical companies willing for this experiment and condemns their request.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences Lahore, Prof Javed Akram stated that the NBC did not approve the experimental trial of Placebo-controlled COVID-19 vaccines for Pakistan.