Clinical Research Training in India :- Clinical Research is a branch of therapeutic/diagnostic healthcare science that scathingly evaluates/compares the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, devices, diagnostic products, and interventional regimens anticipated for human use. These may be put to use for prevention, treatment, diagnosis, or for relief of symptoms in an illness. The monumental growth of clinical research over the past decade is estimated to persist in the near future. This rapid escalation is also an eye-catching business opportunity, with an expected business value over US $ 1.8 – 2 billion, with the country receiving mounting attention for the good conduct of clinical research. Clinical research is a fundamental and essential portion in this market dynamics before the induction of a new drug or vaccine in treatment regimes.
Institutes offering training in clinical research have proliferated throughout the length and breadth of country to garner the requirements of pressing manpower supplies of the industry. The speedy growth of the clinical research field has more encouraged this phenomenon in the past couple of years. The knowledge demanding and highly task-specific fields like Pharmacovigilance have also increased the importance of clinical research training institutes. Clinical research is an extensive field; a fundamental dichotomy is apparent between jobs pertaining to scientific conduct and reporting of trial outcomes on the one hand; and the operational complexities relating to the trial conduct on the other hand.
‘There are no governments driven training institutes offering courses in clinical research in India. In the absence of a traditional university structure, UGC/AICTE recognition, or recognition under any state act, the courses that are taken-up do not have a traditional Indian University accreditation. The prerequisites for these courses are therefore wide, with post-doctoral students and paramedical graduates being registered for the same. Online programs offering a swift entry into the field are in rage. The existing training set-up poses the issue of the quantity of trained individual as well as the intrinsic need for improving the quality of training. Training activities are required to be made compulsory for Institutional Ethics Committee members, investigators, and officials who are expected to be engaged in clinical research. At the same time, there is a pertinent need for competence building for fresh trainees as well.
The existing bright proposition of the clinical research market is not a research ambition. Considerable time and attention will be required to tackle the concerns of the Indian scientific society and self-governing researchers. If unanswered, these could be possible bottlenecks in the rapid growth of clinical research in India.