Contaminated injections playing with lives of cancer patients

ISLAMABAD: A scientist who blew the whistle on contaminated injections manufactured by the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (Pinstech) posing life threats to cancer patients is now himself receiving threats from some anonymous callers warning him against pursuing the case.
Muhammad Riaz Pasha, who oversaw quality control procedure of these injections as a Principal Scientist at Pinstech, had first informed the high-ups of his office about their contamination with undesirable radio-nuclides and then approached the Supreme Court and now Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan-led National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) with some undeniable evidence.
This is a classic case in understanding how information is concealed even from the highest judicial forum like the Supreme Court in order to get a favourable verdict as Pinstech had earlier tampered with the facts to secure a clean chit from the SC.
While the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has not answered the questions in this respect, now raised by the NCHR about Pinstech’s alleged criminal acts, saying the issue has been settled by the Supreme Court, but the NCHR has received a new application from Pasha revealing the threats he is getting from the anonymous callers.
Incidentally, Pasha is presently serving as an adviser to member (science) in PAEC.The Ministry of Health, which was also put on notice by the NCHR, is also reluctant to submit its reply to questions relating to registration of this injection and alleged contamination in it.
The issue was earlier taken up by the Supreme Court where Pinstech managed to bail itself out by tampering with the facts as The News is in possession of the internal correspondence confirming the presence of undesirable radio-nuclides in the injections supplied to the cancer hospitals, a dossier not shared with the apex court.
Each year, thousands of patients admitted to the 14 hospitals run by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission are administered this injection, Technetium 99m Generator (also known as TC-Generator), produced at Pinstech.
It is used for imaging and studying organs such as brain, heart muscles, thyroids, lungs, liver, gallbladder, kidneys as well as skeleton and blood for detecting signs of cancer.However, instead of diagnosing cancers, these injections are, ironically, feared to have caused cancer. They have been administered since 2011. How many patients have lost their lives due to them is anybody’s guess as no inquiry has been held to examine the impact of this injection.
As the SC had taken notice when reported by The News in April 2014, Pinstech had denied outright such contamination, saying an internal inquiry ordered to investigate into the allegations found everything in order.
Trusting that Pinstech dare not misrepresent facts, the SC had disposed of the suo moto notice taken on The News story published on February 25, 2014.Not only the SC, but also the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) that certifies such a product was also kept in the dark through faking the results of these contaminated injections. Pinstech refused to offer comments over this misrepresentation of facts when approached by this correspondent in the past through written questions emailed to the spokesperson for the PAEC.
However an audit conducted by Moody International Certification Group in February 2013 of a batch of these injections pointed out serious problems. One batch of TC-Generator is sufficient for administering injections to at least 500 patients.
While the quality of all the batches produced since 2011 were questioned by a Pinstech’s whistleblower, Pasha, who was deputed for quality control, in a 2013 letter to the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and an audit by Moody International Certification Group had also endorsed this but his findings were not shared during the suo moto case.
“Values/Molybdenum-99 (0.6) were found much higher as per specified values (Standards of European Pharmocopia of 0.1%). Register indicates that 37 generators were prepared from this batch and distributed to various hospitals,” reads the observation of Jehangir Ahmed, the auditor of Moody International Certification Group on February 12, 2013.
His observation was acknowledged by the head of quality control, Dr Samina Roohi, who, while responding to the auditor on the same date, admitted: “This problem has occurred due to the carelessness and lack of training.”
TC-Generator is made of Mo99-TC99 and used along with a medicine for imaging and studying organs suspected to have contracted cancer. Mo (Molybdenum)-99 is produced in a nuclear reactor at Pinstech. Earlier imported from South Africa, it was decided in 2011 to start production in Pakistan that saved money but the decision had a side effect — a risk to lives of thousands of Pakistanis.
In addition to the 14 cancer hospitals of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, several other hospitals use these injections bought from Pinstech. “A number of Mo99-Tc99 batches supplied to various cancer hospitals were contaminated with undesirable radio-nuclides such as Cesium-137, Strontium-90/Yetrium-90 and Ruthinium-103,” reads a 2013 complaint sent to the SC by Muhammad Riaz Pasha, former principal scientist at Pinstech.
“The (final) results are not based on actual analysis but are tampered with to appease the seniors/high-ups for receiving certifications and licences from PNRA,” his complaint had further noted.All this has been done, he goes on, without “considering those less fortunate patients who are suffering from cancer and are being injected with undesirable radioactivity”.