Clinical Research in India
‘THE NEXT big career boom is going to be in clinical research. According to a McKinsey report, by 2010, over 50,000 professionals will be required in the field of clinical research in India alone and for reasons aplenty the country is on its way to becoming a global hub for the same. And Bangalore is emerging as a key centre with many CROs (clinical research organizations) coming up here.’
- The Hindu, Education Plus
What is Clinical Research?
Clinical research is well planned, designed, executed, managed
and analyzed study involving human individuals. This research tests
new drugs/devices/procedures for their safety, and efficacy on human
subjects, carefully chosen considering various parameters.
It takees close to 800 million USD and 10-12 years to bring a single drug molecule from Lab to the market.
This one successful drug molecule will give a return of inspiring 3.0 billion USD per year to the investor. So the multinationals never would like to fall behind in research.
Out of 10,000 molecules tested, only 1 molecule reaches the market. So one can understand the amount of manpower and resources required for every project.
Clinical Trials are done in 4 phases
Phase I – Safety trial
Phase II – Therapeutic exploratory trial
Phase III – Therapeutic confirmatory trial
Phase IV – Post marketing surveillance
Global Scenario
- 2,50,000 Clinical Research professional positions vacant
- 30% of global clinical trials are done in developing countries
- MNCs are investing huge sums for clinical trials
In western countries it takes long time for patient recruitment which leads to delay in product launch and revenue loss to the Pharmaceutical Company. India is becoming the favorite destination for clinical trials since patient recruitment is much faster in India because of availability of patients, less cost and good hospital network.
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