Inadequate funds mar clinical research in India, say officials

There is an urgent need for building the right kind of capacity and increase the allocation of funds to meet the anticipated demand for clinical trials in India, said Dr M K Bhan, secretary, department of biotechnology, Union Ministry of science and technology.

“Clinical research, of which clinical trials is the creative and important part, is suffering from lack of efficient human resources. None of our medical colleges teach skills for conducting clinical trials.

This is ironical as owing to huge population, India should conduct a lot of research in the field and also become attractive for other countries,” Bhan said. He was addressing a symposium on clinical trials organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) .

He said primarily clinical trials are seen as industry rather than part of research.
He added that clinical trials should not become a business. Like in the United States, were it is research based not business focussed as the thrust came from the industry itself.

Bhan said the problem is that most of the workforce are not experts.

“The heads of ethics committees would be people who have never conducted a clinical trial. How will they regulate them?” he said. Bhan believes that the government spends little on clinical research and it is vital to change this and increase fund allocation in this felid.

Bhan also released a study titled ‘Global Clinical Trials: Challenges and Solutions by ASSOCHAM and Apheta Institute of Clinical Research.

Dr Jagdish Prasad, director general of health services condemned the process of granting permission to conduct clinical trials in Dental Council of India (DCI), which takes seven to eight months. 

Dr Prasad said, “Though there is a huge scope for companies operating in the domains of pharma and bio-technology for conducting clinical trials of their products, India would require about 50,000 clinical research professionals to absorb this growth potential.”