The Pune based leading pharmaceutical packaging company, Bilcare, has signed an agreement with Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACPR) for setting up an academy centre at Singapore. It is planning to open 25 new centres in India and across Asia with the initial investment of Rs 20 crore. The academy's Singapore centre is expected to start within two months.
Speaking with Pharmabiz, company's spokesperson said, "We are offering one year post graduate diploma course in clinical trial management. It has 14 modules and each module has been thoroughly studied by Bilcare and ACPR. For this course, we are charging Rs 3 lakh including one year membership and the fee for the other centres in the region is not fixed. Currently, 50 seats are available in the Pune institute. Our institute provides placement assistance to the students. We are also providing three-day workshop for the existing industrial professionals".
The need for clinical research personnel varies considerably, and it is suggested that the clinical research industry will require anywhere between 20,000 to 50,000 trained professionals by the year 2010. The company is rather conservative in the expectation and have put the market at 20,000 personnel. The academic institutions in the country are incapable of meeting this kind of demand. In another five years Bilcare plans to expand its educational activity in such a way that it will be the alma mater to a major proportion of clinical research professionals.
The course is open for graduates in medicine, pharmacy, life sciences, and biotechnology. Admission will be after clearing an on line entrance test. The syllabus has been approved by ACRP. Many professionals in the Industry have been working in the field of clinical research without any formal training or qualifications in this subject. Such people need continued education to keep pace with changes taking place all over the world. Continued Education Programmes (CEP) is essentially required for these people. The company plan to deploy Bilcare expert faculty to conduct these programmes for the industry.
Internationally there are very few professional bodies involved in clinical research education, and ACRP is one among them. ACRP's certification is recognized as the most prestigious all over the world. The students from here should be thus acceptable to every organization that recognizes ACRP. The students will get an automatic membership to ACRP. Being a member of ACRP will mean that they will receive news, updates on clinical research, they will be able to take advantage of ACRP's on line programmes, and will have all the benefits like any other member.
While talking about revenue expectation, spokesperson said, "We are expecting around Rs 50 crore but our objective is to bring quality associates, who can drive quality clinical research programme."