The
Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking centre-wise data of the
clinical trial of anti-diarrhoea vaccine Rotavac, saying it cannot sit in
appeal over the decision taken by an expert committee on the issue.
Rotavirus
vaccine, Rotavac, claims that it protects children from viruses, which are the
leading cause of severe diarrhoea among them.
A bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan
passed the order while hearing a plea seeking directions to the Centre and
others to make public the "segregated data" on the results of third
phase of clinical trial of Rotavac involving 6,799 infants.
The
plea had stated the trials were conducted at three centres at Delhi, Pune and
Vellore to gauge the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
It
had claimed that the data should have been examined by the National Technical
Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) in "public interest but such is the
secrecy surrounding it, it has not been provided even to this apex body".
During
the hearing, the bench observed, "How can we sit in appeal over the
decision of an expert committee?".
"We
will not sit in appeal over the decision of the NTAGI," it said.
Advocate
Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, said the trial was conducted
and data has been collected.
"What
is the harm in release of this data?" he said.
An
advocate, appearing for one of the respondents, claimed that the petition was
"half-baked" and the petitioner has not done proper research before
approaching the apex court with a public interest litigation (PIL) in the
matter.
"Thank
you. Dismissed," the bench said.
The
apex court had in July 2016 sought responses from the Centre and others on the
PIL which said the segregated data was crucial to know if the vaccine was safe
in all areas or if some groups are more "susceptible to adverse effects of
the vaccine".
It had also sought directions to the Centre and others to provide the
petitioner the complete segregated results of the clinical trial of Rotavac
vaccine conducted in all three centres, including the number of
intussusceptions in the two-year trial period at each centre.