Govt to provide upto 70% loan for setting up clinical research facilities in India

In order to augment the fledgling clinical research sector in the country, which has tremendous growth potential, the central government will consider to provide a loan upto 70 per cent towards setting up clinical  research facilities in the country. The government's overtures in this regard to assist the industry comes  in the wake of the fact that even though Indian pharmaceutical industry  has reported a turnover of Rs.1 lakh crore, it has to go a long was in the field of drug research. “Although 50 per cent of the turnover of this industry is from exports,  we still have a long way to grow in the field of drug research. Besides, the quality of research should match international standards, like those of South Korea and China, who are miles ahead of our country in clinical research. Nevertheless, the government is ready to provide a loan of up to  70 per cent towards setting up clinical research facilities,” said Dr Samathanam, Advisor, Department of Science and Technology (DST),  government of India. Dr Samathanam was speaking at a seminar on 'clinical trials' organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)  recently. Besides, the government is also trying to encourage drug development, and for this, it is ready to share 50 per cent of the cost to develop the  infrastructure towards achieving this goal. It is also planning to set up a special pathogen free (SPF) monkey facility in the outskirts of Mumbai,  Dr Samathanam said. Dr Samathanam also invited the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO) to step in to design the guidelines on clinical trials which would help augment regulatory clearances in the country. Touching upon  the need for doing clinical research in an ethical manner, and also to emphasize on regulatory transparency, Dr Samathanam invited all stakeholders of the  industry to help design guidelines for regulatory clearances. “Clinical research cannot be complete without ethics being observed. At the same  time, focus should be laid on training researchers about processes and ethics, so that the outcome is optimum,” he said. Citing the example of South Korea, whose infrastructure and easy government-intent in R&D had helped push the country to have a growth rate of 36 per cent in the time period from 2005-2009, ACRO chairman Apurv Shah said, “while the progress made by India in clinical research since 2005 cannot be ignored, our growth rate has been a meager  16 per cent. A target of reaching a $1 billion-mark was set in 2005, but our country is nowhere close to it; we need to have a growth rate of 40-60 per cent  to meet the target of $1.5 billion by 2015. So it is essential that we ask ourselves, collectively as an industry, about the areas where we lagging behind and the ways in which we can overcome the barriers to growth”. Source:Pharmabiz