@AnooBhu has got me interested in looking at the trials registerd in #ctri (ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials…) Limiting it to Covid trials there are a total of 477 records. Many are observational studies so not really trials at all. Some are of homeopathic treatments.
Some are sponsored by pharma cos. Many are badly designed and unlikely to set the world alight. Some are downright mischievous. But let me comment on one that is downright naughty. It is Registry No CTRI/2020/06/025957 by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited. This is a set up.
It covers 21 trial sites - mostly teaching hospitals, hopes to recruit a total sample of 158 patients hospitalized with mild-mod symptoms of pneumonia (SpO2 <93%) to be randomly allocated by computer to receive either
A) favipiravir, or
B) favipiravir + umifenovir.
Of course Glenmark manufactures Favipravir as FabiFlu. and it has already claimed that it is effective compared to a placebo on the basis of a trial in 150 patients across 7 sites. See prnewswire.com/in/news-releas…
Has it featured in the BMJ's live Networked Meta Analysis?
Not yet because it hasn't been published yet. But the press release claims:
What about the other arm of the trial. It is Favipiravir + Unifenovir. Now his latter drug, Umifenovir has been around for some time and the Govt's agncy, CDRI (Central Drugs Research Institute) and CSIR are doing a phase-3 trial of it. pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/indias-cd….
So here's my problem with this Trial No. CTRI/2020/06/025957 of Favi vs Favi +Umfenovir.
Where is the therapeutic equipoise that would justify such a comparison? And whichever way it goes, it would be a win-win situation for good old favipiravir.
The big objection is that there is no placebo group. What if Favipravir is effectively no better than placebo and the Umfenovir has some small effect that is masked by Favipiravir? How are we ever going to tease out all this mess?
The only benefit of this trial, whatever the results is that doctors in these 21 hospitals will get used to writing prescriptions for FabiFlu aka Favipiravir to all the 150 patients in the trial. This is marketing thinly disguised as a clinical trial.
I wager it will never get written up, never mind published in a half respectable journal. Since these are teaching hospitals, it might get into 1 or 2 MD dissertation, may be a conference poster once lockdown ends. But is it serious research? #Cornavirus must be laughing at us.
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This #50WordEdit from @ShekharGupta really takes the biscuit. He seems to have swallowed the usual Govt hype and self-praise about the recently concluded India-EFTA trade deal, and its description as a 100 billion USD deal. Let's delve behind the deal a bit shall we?
I presented an analysis of this deal in this twitter thread done a few weeks ago when it was still under negotiation.
But to reiterate a few points:
EFTA may have Europeean in its name - European Free Trade Association - but for avoidance of doubt it is not the European Union. EFTA is a customs area of 4 countries, Switzerland, Norway, Lichtenstein (a tiny city state of a mere 40,000 people)
Tucked away in the new Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita is Sec 148, under which a policeman can order
"any assembly of five or more persons ..to disperse;..." They need not be doing anything wrong. It's enough if the policeman thinks it is likely they will.
If they don't disperse as commanded, Sec 148(2) provides for the policeman to call up members of the public to assist him in making them disperse (These could potentially be goons from some saffron dal).
Sec 149 provides for the DM to summon the help ofthe army to disperse the crowd of 5 or more people.
I think the Opposition is missing a trick. Instead of sitting on the steps to some side entrance into Parliament, they should run a 'parallel' parliament session. debating issues, considering bills clause by clause and passing resolutiions maybe even voting down bills.
It'll have no effect of course but it would make for good theatre. Put it on @YouTube. Invite journalists and experts for select committe style enquiries into policy issues, I am sure there'll be enough volunteers to provide secretarial support.
After all the suspended MPs come from almost all parts of India. Many are well-versed in Parliamentary procedure and language. Some are constitutional, legal and public finance experts. They could put on a greart show of erudition and elocution with humour and grace
I currently have family over from India, on a visit. Educated, well off. Totally unaware of current affairs; claim they never bother with news, neither TV nor magazines. But that doesn't mean they have no opinion on issues that matter. So for instance, they assert that:
1. After 70 years in which nothing happened, India is suddenly now a world power. 2. By 2050, Muslims will take over India. 3. Hindus are discriminated against in favour of minorities esp Muslims and Christians who have the upper hand because of past vote-bank politics.
All these assertions crumble under cross examination.
"So they say.. on WhatsApp.. we don't know if true or not, but why take a chance.. " is the constant refrain.
It is maddening and frustrating. Logical fact based counter argument gets you nowhere.
India has officially rejected @JustinTrudeau's allegation. They had no other option. They could hardly have said, हमने कनाडा में घुस के मारा साले को.
From the moral high ground it once occupied, India has been reduced to the level of Pakistan which routinely issued such denials.
This is a foreign policy failure for which I blame the weaponisation of the #GodiMedia which has been encouraged to turn every official statement of the Govt into a Modi MasterStroke.
The Private conversation between Mr Modi and Mr Trudeau should never have been broadcast.
Instead, the Indian side leaked it that the Indian prime minister had "read the riot act" to his Canadan counterpart about Sikh separatism, Godi Media outlets presented this as India's moment in the world soon after a successful #G2Lotus summit to act tough and muscular.
A Thread.
Met a retired banker in my local temple. Lives in #Bengaluru. Visiting daughter's family in Essex. She's 'in software'. After the usual where? How long? he volunteers the opinion, "too many Blacks and Muslims in Britain"
I replied, "They're immigrants too just like us"
"We are all here, your daughter and most of us Hindus here in this Temple, black people from Africa n the Caribbean, Muslims from India and Pakistan and whats now Bangladesh, etc bec. of Empire. We're all from ex-colonies. We're all the same, aren't we".
He pondered a bit, found someone else more interesting, and moved on. The irony is that when we struck up a conversation, we each (incl my 7 y old grandson) had a plate of delicious Sambhar and rice and soji halwa. He had expressed the view that the 7y old would not eat rice.