Cancer centre chief ready to face probe

thiruvananthapuram: the director of the regional cancer centre, (rcc) dr m krishnan nair, on saturday said that he was ready to face any probe into the controversy regarding allegations that a banned toxic drug had been tested on cancer patients. "i have given a letter to chief minister a k antony in this regard to take any step in the matter", he told reporters. asked if he would step down to facilitate an independent probe, nair said it was for the government to decide. denying allegations of 'wrong doing" in the trials,he said it was conducted only after getting permission from the drugs controller general of india and clearance from the ethics committee of the centre. there was no secret involved in using the new anti-virus agent "m-4 n", developed by johns hopkins university. studies had proved there was no toxic effect for the drug, which was part of rcc's drug development project, he said, adding that experiments had shown that it was a very potent anti-cancer drug. the drug had not been banned in us, he said. trials were conducted on patients only after getting due consent from them, he added. rcc, a premier cancer treatment and research institution, run on state and central funds, has been at the centre of a controversy after a radio-biologist in the hospital filed a petition before the state human rights commission, alleging that patients were subjected to the tests.