The government’s licensing authority for medical drugs has served notices on the Indian scientists involved in the ‘superbug’ study published last month, asking them to explain how they collected samples for the research and transported them abroad.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal published the study on a new ‘superbug’ identified in several patients who had travelled to India for medical treatment, and said there were virtually no drugs to treat it. An international team of researchers, including eight scientists working in Indian institutions, isolated a gene called ‘New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase’, or NDM-1, which they said makes bacteria resistant to even the most powerful class of antibiotics called ‘carbapenems’.
The study was trashed by the Indian government and members of Parliament, who took offence to the name ‘New Delhi’, and suggested the study was an attempt by vested interests to hurt medical tourism in India.
