Pharma firm reports -ve on superbug

Aug 17, 2010 |

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Chennai, Aug 16: Pharma major Wyeth has claimed that it had no knowledge about the results of the controversial study published in the journal Lancet that “discovered” a superbug in Indian hospitals. Wyeth said it had not accessed it at any point of time.

The company faced a lot of flak after the Union health ministry and sections of the media accused its researchers of having “influenced the study” to suggest that India and Pakistan were responsible for the spread of drug-resistant superbug called New Delhi metallo-beta lactamese, or NDM-1.

“This study was funded by the European Union, Wellcome Trust and Wyeth UK,” a company spokesperson told this newspaper.

“The funding from Wyeth was an educational fellowship for flig-hts, accommodation and costs associated with the post-doctoral studentship,” he said.

“Wyeth had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report,” he added. Wyeth is reported to have funded only 2 per cent of the study, the rest coming from EU and Wellcome.

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