In a paper ‘’Globalization and Health, Biomed Central 7: 9 (2011)’’ by Justin Chakma, Hassan Masum, Kumar Perampaladas, Jennifer Heys and Peter A Singer*, the authors interviewed Mr. Varaprasad Reddy (VR), MD, Shantha Biotechnics and more than 20 scientists and other employees. Not even once, the name of Prof. Guntaka was mentioned in this interview. Neither VR nor the scientists revealed the contribution of Guntaka, however he was Scientific Advisor of the company at that time. While casually browsing, Prof. Guntaka came across the above mentioned paper and immediately sent an email to the Principal author Dr. Peter A Singer, who in turn asked Dr. Hassan Masum to investigate. Incidentally, Guntaka happened to be in Hyderabad and so Masum called him there and spoke for about an hour, he realized the truth and replied to Dr Singer that
‘Based on our conversation and prior reading, I believe that our writing on Shantha would have benefited if we had known to interview Professor Guntaka. I apologized for any incompleteness in the perspective we wrote, and assured Professor Guntaka that we would have loved to interview him had we known of his involvement. In response Dr Peter Singer said, Dear Hassan and Prof Ramareddy, This sounds just perfect. Most of all I am delighted to know about your pivotal role Prof Ramareddy. Congratulations on your contribution to saving lives through vaccines. Best wishes, Peter Singer
By Kamal Pratap Singh and Prof. Ramareddy V Guntaka
Corresponding e-mail: kamal9871@gmail.com
