A non-profit group raised an issue regarding the deaths of 49 children during clinical trials of new medicines in AIIMS during the last two-and -a-half years. This group believes that the children enrolled for the clinical tests were from poor families. The Uday Foundation for Congenital Defects and Rare Blood Groups had sought information about the trials through a freedom-of-information request.

The hospital denied that children involved in the trails had poor socio-economic background. Moreover the children enrolled for the trials represented the "prevailing mix" of patients treated at the premier institute AIIMS on Tuesday said that the drugs used in the trials were found safe in earlier studies and "not known" to have fatal complications.

The hospital said more details would be provided after it completed the inquiry into the trials. The drugs marketed by the US arm of Swiss-based Novartis and by US-based Shire Human Genetic Therapies used in these trails were safe.

The institute added the infants died because they had "high-risk and serious disease conditions."