Alarmed by the rise in illegal drug trials in the country and the lack of effective laws for their monitoring, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is mulling guidelines for clinical trials. The NHRC has written to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and other premier medial institutes in the country to suggest the names of experts to assist the commission in framing the guidelines.

Recently, the unauthorised drug trials had caused great concern in the country after the Drug Controller-General of India (DCGI) revealed that 2061 persons died during drug trials between the period from January 2008 to January 2012.