Hyderabad, September 20: The new trend of companies investing in clinical research and making of generic drugs locally has created a lot of demand for clinical research professionals. However, the three key training institutes in the country together cannot train more than 5,000 professionals a year.
Clinical research is a key area for the pharmaceutical industry to keep up with the demand for newer drugs and therapies as lifestyle changes and stress levels take on new dimensions.
According to global consulting firms McKinsey and Ernst & Young, the demand for clinical research professionals in India is set to explode. About 10,000 Good Clinical Practice (GCP) trained investigators and 50,000 clinical research professionals would be needed every year in the near future.
“The requirement of professionals for the clinical research industry will touch 60,000 by 2012. But the training institutes are not at all in a position to meet the demand,” said Richard Andrews, director of the Focus Group, the umbrella organisation under which the Bangalore-based Focus Institute of Clinical Research, one of the three better known institutes in the country, runs. The Clinical Research Education and Management Academy and the Institute of Clinical Research India are the other institutes that offer a Diploma in Clinical Research functions.
Clinical research students will have openings as clinical research coordinators, clinical trial assistants, co-investigators. In KPOs (Knowledge Process Outsourcing companies) they will be taken as clinical research analysts and content medical writing associates while in software companies they can fit in as data validators and drug safety associates.
The Focus Institute of Clinical Research offers a one-year PG Diploma in Clinical Research (regular batch), one-year PG Diploma in Clinical Research (weekend course which also covers Clinical Data Management and Pharma co-vigilance) and an Advanced Diploma in Clinical Research.
Healthcare professionals — MBBS, BDS, MD, physiotherapy, ayurveda, veterinary science, homeopathy and nursing — and science stream students – B.Sc, M.Sc or Ph.D. in life science, botany, zoology and biochemistry — are eligible for Clinical Research Associate Training Program.
“Having tied up with all major clinical research organisations across the country, we had 96 percent placements this year,” Andrews said.
–Agencies