Boom in clinical research industry: A dangerous trend.
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Date
2009-07
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Abstract
Over the last decade or so India has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the clinical trial industry. The projections forecast a continuing growth of this trend. It has been predicted that
by 2011 India will be in charge of 15% of global clinical trials.1 The enthusiasm for the growth
of this industry in India is shared not just by the major pharmaceutical companies and CROs
but also equally so by government agencies.2
The raison d’être for medical research is that it should lead to maximum possible benefit
to the largest number of people. Hence, an examination of the extent to which public good is
served can act as a measure for objective analysis of this exponential increase in the clinical
trial industry. After all it is the health and lives of the people that are at stake.
On the face of it, it would seem that all trials testing the safety and efficacy of various
molecules, by their very nature work towards public welfare as they are indispensible to the
development of any drug including the life-saving ones. An increasing number of clinical
trials at all stages in a product’s life cycle are funded by the pharmaceutical industry.3,4 It
would then seem that the industry-sponsored medical research is necessarily furthering the
larger objective of human wellbeing. However, the operations of the pharmaceutical industry, the nature of the processes involved and the operative motives are a bit too complex to
facilitate this larger objective so simply, just as yet. This warrants a closer look at the various aspects of industry-sponsored clinical research.
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Keywords
Industry-sponsored clinical research, a case of warped priorities, Pharmaceutical industry and “neglected diseases” research
Citation
Bajpai Vikas, Saraya Anoop. Boom in clinical research industry: A dangerous trend. Tropical Gastroenterology. 2009 Jul-Sept; 30(3): 177-181.