Underscoring the role of clinical research in meeting the needs of patients in the country, the Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) today announced that its 9th annual conference would be held in Mumbai on the theme 'Clinical Research in India: Patients First and Research for India'.
The conference, which will be held on January 8-9, is expected to be attended by about 400 clinical research professionals from India and overseas.
The theme of the ISCR conference assumes significance as in the last few years, clinical research in India went through a turbulent period due to the hard-hitting revisions in compensation guidelines in January, 2013 which negatively impacted its growth before more rational guidelines in 2015 restored some balance in the regulatory environment.
Although India is home to a sixth of the world's population, less than 1.4 per cent of global clinical trials are done in the country which also shares a fifth of the global disease burden.
"More needs to be done. Clinical research is essential not just for developing medicines for emerging health concerns such as antibiotic resistant pathogens, H1N1 and dengue, but also for finding safer and better medicines for endemic diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, as well as for lifestyle diseases now becoming more entrenched in the country such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer," Suneela Thatte, President, ISCR, said.
India needs to take a more proactive role in conducting clinical research. A more conducive regulatory framework for conducting clinical research in the country will encourage local innovation, ensuring that Make in India is a reality for drug development and clinical research sector in India, Thatte said.
The forthcoming conference will cover a vast range of
topics of relevance and contemporariness from the perspective of clinical operations, investigator initiated research, ethics, training, regulation, pharmacovigilance, statistics etc.
Dr Suresh Menon, Member, Executive Committee and Regulatory Council, ISCR said, "Clinical research should not be looked at in isolation of the larger healthcare needs and priorities of our country. We have a great task ahead of us in working together to strengthen clinical research sites, investigators and ethics committees and of course, empowering the patient who is at the centre of clinical research.
"At the same time, we have a responsibility in working with each other to help restore trust and confidence of global stakeholders in doing clinical research in India."
"As a country, we have a moral obligation to participate in clinical research and a responsibility to our patients. We need a regulatory environment that will encourage and support the kind of research we do.
"In the last year, we have seen steps taken by the regulators to address many of the contentious guidelines and hope that the process of reform will continue in 2016 so that ultimately patients will benefit," said Dr C S Pramesh, Professor and Chief, Thoracic Surgery, Dept of Surgical Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital.
