In Chhindwara, 25 children died after drinking deadly cough syrup Coldrif. Dr. Praveen Soni of Parasia was prescribing this medicine of Shreesan Pharma for the last 10 years. There was an undisclosed agreement between the pharmaceutical company and Dr. Praveen Soni, although talks with Bhaskar
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This is just one example of the nexus between pharmaceutical companies and doctors. One such shocking case has been gathering dust in the files of Madhya Pradesh Medical Council for 10 years, in which 20 big and reputed private doctors from 14 districts of the state had come on a trip to Italy with their families at the expense of a pharma company. In return, these doctors had prescribed medicines of this company to the patients.
A complaint about this matter was made 10 years ago, but the laziness and negligence of the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council is such that even today it is writing letters to these doctors asking for travel tickets and bank details. Whereas according to the rules, the Council should resolve any complaint within a maximum of 6 months.
After a long slumber of 10 years, when the complainant warned of filing a petition in the High Court, the Council showed strictness and sent a notice to these doctors on September 30 asking why action should not be taken against them. read the report
Madhya Pradesh Medical Council has issued this letter on September 30 and has asked 20 doctors to reply within 15 days.
Foreign trip 10 years ago, till date only notice The roots of this entire matter are 10 years old. Vikas Tiwari, a whistleblower and social activist from Raipur, had filed a written complaint with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council on August 28, 2015. In the complaint, he had claimed with evidence that a total of 28 private doctors from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had gone on a trip to the beautiful cities of Venice and Portorož in Italy from July 13 to July 21, 2014.
This was no ordinary holiday. It was a ‘sponsored’ trip, the entire expense of which was borne by ‘USV Limited’, a big pharma company of Mumbai. Vikas Tiwari claimed in his complaint that this trip was given as a reward to these doctors because they were prescribing medicines of this company to the patients, due to which the company was earning huge profits. This was a direct violation of medical ethics.
Slowness in MP, speed in Chhattisgarh This case also highlights the differences in the functioning of the medical councils of the two states. Complainant Vikas Tiwari says, ‘I had also complained to Chhattisgarh Medical Council about two doctors from Chhattisgarh who had gone on this foreign trip. There immediate action was taken on my complaint.
The council not only issued a notice to the doctors but also issued a notice to the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the trip and sought their response. After completing the investigation within just 4 months, the licenses of both the doctors were cancelled. In contrast, the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council has sent only four notices to these 20 doctors in 10 years.
The complainant said- will go to the High Court The council’s action was so poor that it could not even get the passports, bank details and bank details of the last three years of these doctors in 10 years. The limit was reached when the Council, to confirm the matter, asked for all the information about the doctors’ visits from the complainant Vikas Tiwari. Whereas Chhattisgarh Council itself had obtained information from the company.
Vikas Tiwari says, ‘When no concrete action was taken even after 10 years, I wrote a letter to the council and warned that if nothing was still done, I would file a PIL in the Jabalpur High Court regarding this matter. After my warning, the council came into action and now the final notice has been issued.
‘Final Warning’ after 10 years, what next? Following the High Court’s warning, the Ethics Cum Disciplinary Committee heard the matter on August 7, 2025. The committee admitted in its report that letters were sent four times to the doctors to submit necessary documents like passport, ITR (Income Tax Return), audit report and bank transaction details in their defense, but they did not provide any information.
Now the Council has given these doctors a last chance and ordered them to submit the sought information within 15 days of receiving this letter, otherwise a final order will be issued against them. The result of the Council’s 10-year investigation is that till now it has been able to get only travel tickets of 8 doctors and passports of 16 doctors.
There are three doctors whose exact address the council could not even find in 10 years. Whereas the complainant says that he had submitted all the documents and information along with an affidavit of Rs 50.
Action should be taken not only on doctors but also on pharmaceutical companies According to Vikas Tiwari, it is not fair to blame only doctors in such cases. Pharma companies can also be prosecuted under the government’s Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP), 2024. Under this, the license of a company doing unethical marketing can be suspended.
By making the names of such pharma companies public, they can be blacklisted. According to Vikas Tiwari, this case exposes the dark side of healthcare, where the nexus of doctors and pharmaceutical companies is robbing the health and pockets of the patients.
officials are shrugging off When Bhaskar asked Dr. Deepti Chaurasia, Registrar of the responsible organization Madhya Pradesh Medical Council, about this delay, she said that she had taken over the job of Registrar only a year ago. These complaints are being heard by the Ethics Committee, whose chairman is Dr. Aruna Kumar, Director of Medical Education, Madhya Pradesh.
Aruna Kumar, chairperson of the medical ethics committee that hears the complaints and director of medical education (DME), declined to talk about the matter. He said, ‘The complaint has been made to the Medical Council, you should talk to them. I have not even seen the file of this complaint yet.
All of them are registrars of Madhya Pradesh Medical Council.
Collusion revealed in drug trial case 14 years ago A big and famous case came to light in Indore between 2008 and 2011, in which several reputed government doctors were accused of illegally conducting drug trials on patients without their knowledge and consent. Considering the seriousness of this matter, the Economic Offenses Investigation Wing (EOW) of the state had investigated and registered a case. Understand the whole case in 4 points..
- What was the matter?: Several government doctors attached to Indore’s Maharaja Yashwantrao (MY) Hospital and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College allegedly collaborated with national and international pharmaceutical companies to test their new medicines on their patients. These patients were often poor, uneducated and from vulnerable backgrounds, who had no idea that any medicine was being used on them.
- How was the trial conducted?: Doctors were accused of involving patients in these trials by telling them that they were getting normal treatment. In many cases, consent forms were fraudulently obtained from patients or their family members for signatures or signatures, even though they were not aware of the authenticity of the documents. Mentally ill patients and children were also included in these trials.
- Allegation of financial gain: Investigation revealed that pharmaceutical companies used to pay huge sums of money to doctors in return for these illegal drug trials. According to the EOW investigation, some doctors had earned crores of rupees through these tests.
- Playing with health: The most serious allegation was that these drugs caused serious side effects to the health of many patients and in some cases even resulted in death. The EOW report also mentioned the deaths that occurred during the trials and the serious effects of the medicines on the patients.
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