the goan I network
PANAJI
A document obtained under the Right To Information (RTI) Act has revealed that Dr Amit Dias, a lecturer at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) in the Preventive Medicine Department, has not been involved in any clinical trial of drugs.
The RTI document also reveals that none of the research applications submitted by Dr Dias during the time period that he was a member of the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) at the GMC were related to clinical trials. The RTI document was obtained on August 29, and has been signed by Dr Amey Kamat, the member secretary of the IEC, at GMC.
A controversy broke out around a month ago, when Dr Dias’ name appeared in some sections of the media who claimed that Dr Dias was involved in the clinical trial of drugs on economically weak patients who hoped for free treatment at the GMC.
However, the RTI, a copy of which is available with The Goan, shows that of the fourteen research applications submitted by Dr Dias to the IEC, many of which he serves as a guide to his students, not even one is concerned with the clinical trial of drugs.
Further, the RTI states that Dr Dias has “always recused himself from the decision making process whenever his research applications were considered by the IEC.” Member Secretary of IEC has also gone on to state that as per ICMR guidelines, if any member of the IEC wants to table his research proposal, he has to table his conflict of interest before the chairperson of the IEC and recuse himself from the deliberations on the proposal. His vote is not considered in the approval/disproval in such circumstances. These guidelines are being strictly adhered to by the IEC, stated its member secretary.
Dr Amit Dias served as a member of the IEC from 29 January, 2016 to 12 July, 2019.
