Hungary denies drug experiment claims

Hungary's National Pharmaceutical Institute has denied that dangerousdrug experiments are being carried out on unsuspecting Hungarian patients.

The Institute was responding to US reports describing Hungary as a target for low-cost experimentation by US drugmakers on patients. One report, in the Washington Post, stated that US drug majors were conducting tests in Hungarian hospitals that would not be allowed under US law.

Janos Borvendeng, the Institute's deputy director, told a radio interview in Budapest that "allegations in this form are certainly not true." All clinical trials carried out in Hungary are regulated and have to be authorized by the Institute, as well as by an independent ethical committee, he said. The charge that US pharmaceutical manufacturers were taking advantage of the relaxed attitude of the Hungarian authorities was "ill-willed," he said, adding that there was no need for official sanction to conduct tests in Belgium, the Netherlands or Switzerland.