Pharma giant's drug tests on Russian children challenged

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2007

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian senators called on Friday for an investigation into a vaccine trial by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) which local prosecutors say was conducted illegally on children by a clinic in Volgograd region.

"We cannot remain indifferent to this because it involves children, and in our view the doctors' actions amount to criminal activity," said Valentina Petrenko, head of the committee for social policy of the federation council, the upper house of Russia's parliament.

At Petrenko's recommendation, the federation council sent a request to Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to investigate the case, taking the inquiry from a regional level to a federal level.

GSK launched a trial of its Varilrix vaccine against chicken pox and...