Evan Douglas

 

A total of 128 volunteers took part in the drug test. The subjects were between the ages of 18 to 55 and were considered healthy.

Six male volunteers aged between 28 and 49 are in hospital, including one now classified as brain dead. It said 108 healthy volunteers had already participated in the tests without any moderate or serious adverse reactions becoming evident.

After visiting the men and their families in hospital, Touraine, promising to shed light on who was responsible, said: “Their distress is vast”. The drug doesn’t contain cannabis and isn’t derived from cannabis either, she said.

Calling the incident “unprecedented” at an afternoon news conference in Rennes, Touraine said: “I have no knowledge of a comparable event”.

The six men started taking the drug on January 7.

Clinical trials are an essential part of the drug development process. Thus far, the exact nature of the drug that was being tested is being withheld from the public; however, the health ministry has continued to deny the suspicions and reports that the drug was cannabis related.

The trial had been stopped and all volunteers had been recalled.