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hubie writes:

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) removed a clinical trial registry whose aim is to revive brain-dead accident victims. An orthopedic surgeon, Himanshu Bansal, at Anupam Hospital in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand had planned to give 20 brain-dead people a mix of interventions including injections of stem cells, peptides, and laser and median nerve stimulation. There is a scattering of evidence that these individual treatments can improve the conditions of people who have suffered massive head trauma, but none as yet for those who have suffered brain death. Last spring Bansal stated his goal was to bring brain-dead people back to a "minimally conscious state" in which patients show flickers of consciousness.

One of the ethical concerns raised was that these treatments have not even been tested on animal models. In addition, even if the experiment succeeds, it would be highly traumatic to the families and it leaves open the issue of the responsibility of the long-term care of the patient.

In a press statement, Bansal argued that there are no good animal models for human brain death. Asked in a June interview for The Wire what he planned to do if patients were brought back to a minimally conscious state but did not regain further function, Bansal responded that his team "had not planned for it" initially, but that he had since purchased an insurance policy to cover the costs of full-time care of such patients. Still, the ReAnima team has struggled to convince family members to allow brain-dead accident victims to be enrolled in the trial, says Ira Pastor, chief executive officer of Bioquark.

The peptides that were to be used was going to be supplied by Bioquark, a Philadelphia biotech firm. Ira Pastor, the chief executive officer of Bioquark, said that this rejection is only a minor setback and that this research will continue, in a different country if necessary:

"We are in no major rush, in that it represents a 'Google Moonshot'–style project," he says. "Many road blocks, no doubt, will pop up. But the project will go on."

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