(PressTV) – Children of third world countries and nations in transition have become ‘laboratory rats’ for the US’ clinical tests for new drugs, an Indian newspaper says.

Under US’ 1997 legislation called the Pediatric Exclusivity Provision, intended to speed up development of new drugs for American kids, the trials were carried out in countries such as Uganda and India, The Times of India reported.

Although the trials were carried out in such countries, using their children as laboratory rats, it is not clear if okayed medicines might ever become available there and whether they will be affordable for them.

Dr. Sara Pasquali, a pediatrician at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, whose findings appear in the journal Pediatrics, said that the situation raises ethical concerns.

“The trend that we describe brings up some scientific and ethical problems,” she said.

“Oftentimes, access to a study may be the only access to medical care a family has,” Pasquali added.

Among the 174 such trials the researchers examined, drugs against infectious diseases were most likely to be tested in the developing world, closely followed by heart, allergy and arthritis medications.

“We are now using vulnerable people in vulnerable countries as drug laboratories,” Dr Marcia Angell, another researcher said. “It is all about dollars and cents.”