Understanding the reality: Is India losing standing for clinical research?

Abstract

In recent years, the growth of clinical research has gone up globally, and countries from Asia are gaining in importance. Being the preferred hub for clinical research because of its young, highly educated work-force, prevalence of all major diseases, and, most importantly, use of English as the medium of communication and documentation making, India is an attractive destination. While enduring growth; few countries have made substantial changes to align with the international standards, wherein the state of affair is still in the process of improvement in India. Also, because of the ever growing hurdles for conducting trials in India, many clinical research sponsors have started searching for other suitable alternatives. Seemingly minor details could have a great impact on the outcome of the trial, not just in terms of time and money, but also the quality and credibility of the data generated. While there are a lot of similarities with that of Western standards of clinical research, there are indeed some key differences as well. Thus, India needs to take the next step up the value ladder to magnetize the global clinical research to outsource, drug discovery and development projects to India, to accelerate timelines and manage complexity. This article attends to various pieces of the same puzzle.