The act lacks specific penalties for violating provisions relating to clinical trials. As a result, no penalties could be imposed on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) for violating norms in conducting the HPV vaccination trials on tribal girls in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. On 17 April 2015, the government told the Supreme Court of India that due to lack of specific penalties, the government could only halt the trials and issued warnings. The trial had been found to be unethical by a Parliamentary committee in 2013.
