Newsclick hosts selected news features of students from AJK MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia University. Over 2000 people have died during clinical drug trials in the last four years in India but only 22 have been compensated. A report by Sana Amir, Salma Rehman and Zainab Sayeed.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick

In this Newsclick interview, Kalyani Menon, Co-ordinator of the Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab (Herceptin) speaks to Ravish Mehra, husband of a breast cancer survivor who recounts his experiences in accessing Herceptin, and the travails faced therein.

Kalyani Menon Sen, activist and feminist researcher discusses with Newsclick the importance of access to drugs, specially in certain life-threatening diseases. Today, a lot of women are getting affected with breast cancer. According to the national cancer registry, over 1,00,000 women in India develop breast cancer every year. Herceptin is a drug which is useful in the most aggressive form of the cancer, which typically afflicts younger patients. But its cost is prohibitive for almost any Indian patient to afford. Given the drug’s important public health benefit, Kalyani Menon Sen feels that Indian government should issue compulsory license and make the drug accessible to a large number of women.

The Government has recently made public the “Draft National Pricing Pharmaceutical Policy, 2011”