The Constant Gardner, a gripper movie thriller, has been selected as one of the top ten films of 2005 in a listing by American Time magazine (December 17, 2005). Directed by Fernando Meirelles, The Constant Gardener is about a widower's firm determination to uncover the truth behind his wife's gruesome and mysterious murder. The film is based on the best-selling John le Carre` novel - Time magazine selected 100 movies - director of "City of God". The novel is about a plot detailing the immorality and corruption of a fictitious drug company, in association with various officials including humanitarian agencies, and using the poor countries as a clinical testing ground for developing drugs. The film starred Ralph Fiennes as an unassuming, unambitious, low-level diplomat, Justin Quayle and actress Rachel Weizz as Justin Quayle's wife, Tessa Quayle. The Time magazine's influential critic Richard Corliss, citing his reasons for selecting this film, mentioned in the magazine, "This is a film of nuance and power, flawlessly acted and an adventure to watch…"

Story behind cinematic performances
Tessa Quayle, a civil activist, campaigns to bring awareness on natives of African villages about their rights. She tries to expose the practices of botched experimental drug trials conducted by western pharmaceutical companies upon poor villagers. The slums near Nairobi and lava-flow desert scenes in northern Kenya are where the story is based. She is found mysteriously murdered in one remote area near Nairobi. The film revolves around the transformation of low-profile diplomat Justin working in the British Foreign Service office in Nairobi into more reactive person searching the reasons of his wife's death. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, Justin finds flawed experimental drug trials conducted by western drug testing companies and unethical research practices. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of wife's death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target of Tessa's killers as well. In the end, the film tells us, he uncovers truth of the indictment of big pharmaceutical companies' complicity in business, African poverty, corporate corruption and wife's murder.
Reel to real
According to a May 16, 2005 report in USA Today, giant drug outfits are outsourcing increasing numbers of drug trials outside the United States and Europe. Many multinationals are planning to conduct a lion's share of their drug trials and drug research offshore. As all we know, from time immemorial a few pharmaceutical industries have been conducting dangerous drug research trials on the people of third world countries. It is also reported in mass media in recent past that patient in developing countries line up to take part in clinical trials with or without informed consent. According to World Medicine Situation 2004 report, only 10 per cent of Research and Development (R&D) spending is directed to the health problems that account for 90 per cent of global disease burden - the so-called 10/90 gap. Indirectly 90 per cent of the R&D budget takes aim at diseases that cause just 10 per cent of the global disease burden i.e. diseases of rich nations. And so, while developing countries including India suffer from malaria, filaria, and the various infectious diseases, the working poor continue to take part in experimental trials for drug development of high tech diseases.

Fiction or reality
The film provides a glimpse into fraudulent practices in drug clinical trials outsourced to the underdeveloped countries utilizing their facilities including human volunteers. Mainly two conflicting groups have expressed their opinions about the film. As expected, big pharmaceutical companies have strongly opined their views saying, it's fiction in cinematic thriller, and not a reality. On the other hand health care activists across the globe believe it as a reflection of real situation prevailing in drug experimental research, and not an exaggeration. Many reviews and report have been published in response to this film equating the film to the shift of burden of drug trials away from western volunteers onto the world's poor. A few of the reviews and report published and available online are presented here: The Constant Gardener: what the movie missed by Sonia Shah (http://www.thenature.com/doc/20050912/shah); Drug Abuse by AdamGraham-Silverman (http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w050829&s=grahamsilverman090205); The Constant Gardener - does art imitate life?" by Dr. Carolyn Dean (http://www.NewsWithViews.com) .
The classic film, The Constant Gardener exposes those who are unfamiliar with how drugs are developed and tested to real-life drug development, drug research, and drug clinical trials. In the real world of drugs and pharmaceuticals, the cinematic effects of this film's performances are rare. However, the film does much to reveal drug research as a very big corporate business that makes everyone in third world understand the truth - more far-reaching and deadly than these people would have ever imagined. Many believe novel is created by imitating real situations or personal experiences of a novelist. The Constant Gardener is made from fiction, but nobody will deny the fact that exploitative drug testing isn't always fiction, either. The film will continue to generate more opinions regarding drug trials in the days to come.

The author is Reader in Pharmacy,
Annamalai University, Annmalainagar 608 002 (TN)
Email: cdl_scbasak@sancharnet.in