India is fast emerging as an attractive destination for conducting global clinical trials due to availability of vast pool of patients and also well trained medical professionals and sophisticated technological infrastructure.
The clinical research outsourcing market in India was valued at Rs 3.1 billion in 2005 and is expected to grow to Rs 13.2 billion by 2010. Most of the US and European nations are outsourcing clinical trials to India, says Mahesh Sawant of Healthcare Practice, Frost & Sullivan, a market research company.'A huge patient population, genetically distinct groups, speciality hospitals with state-of-the-art facilities, nearly 700,000 hospital beds and 221 medical colleges, skilled Engligh speaking investigators are India's trump cards,' says Sawant.
'The entire world is watching the growth and performance of India in this segment of business. There are positive signals and reports which justify the trends for pharmaceutical sponsors to look seriously at India for carrying forward their drug development intitiatives,' notes Dr Umakanta Sahoo, Head, India Operations, Chiltern International, a clinical research organisation.
A CII study predicts that the clinical trials market will grow to 200 million dollars by 2007 and anywhere between 500 million and one billion dollars by 2010, Sahoo says.
Source:PTI News
