88 SOCIAL SCIENTIST ration in the USA will not now grant a license to a new drug if the conditions of the Helsinki Declaration were not met during the testing. When medicines are tested in the Third World, it is obviously more difficult to be absloutely sure of the level of informed consent given by the subjects of experiment ation. The most flagrant use of the peoples of third world countries for testing new products has been during the developments of various contraceptive devices, and in particular the steroid contraceptives. The very first oral forms of these contraceptives were given their initial large scale clinical trials in the third world.30 In India, few know about the fabulous profits made by Organon India and G D Searle through such practices. Transfer Pricing Yet another novel method used by the MNCs to exploit host countries like India is the use of transfer prices. Comparing the prices that firms were paying for intermediate products from the parent company with prices at which the same products could have been. obtained in the world market, some Colombian investigators detected overpricing in every case.11 (see Table XI). TABLE X :! Multinational Range of other Percentage Product price of importation quotations on over pricing to Colombia World Market {FOB} US $ (FOB) US $ Diazepam 2,500.00 30.00-45.55 6,478.0 Chlordiazepoxide 1,250.00 18.90-20.00 6,155.0 Tetracycline base 250.00 23.5 948.0 Metron idazole 390.00 11.15 3,398.0 Promethazine 140.00 19.70 654.3 Methyldopa 80.00 18.48 333.0 Indomethacin 640.00 72.50 611.0 Hydrochlorothiazide 90.00 5.20 1,530.7 SOURCE: Same as table VI It has been thus calculated that the actual return (100 percent) earned by the MNGs is accounted for by reported profits (3.4 percent), royalties (14 percent) and overpricing (82.6 percent). The effect of these financial arrangements on the governments of the underdeveloped countries especially those faced with limited, or diminishing foreign exchange resources is often such as to bring about an actual reduction over time in the quantity of medicines that can be imported into the country. It is with this background that the Hathi Committee sug-