It is estimated that about 20 per cent of all clinical trials conducted globally will be from India by 2010. Over two million people will be participating in clinical studies in India by that time. Last year, over nine million patients participated in clinical trials globally, Dr Vijai Kumar, president and CEO, Neeman Medical International said.

India has advantage in contract research due to the availability of manpower, large patient base, good infrastructure, stable legal system, good regulatory practices, adherence to ethical guidelines for human and biomedical research and large number of English speaking professionals, he added.

Indian CROs have a good future as indigenous companies need support from them, besides global companies. The CROs can enter into alliances with their counterparts in other countries and enable Indian pharmaceutical companies to conduct studies in those countries, Dr Kumar said.

He condemned the allegations that patients in India are going to be used as 'guinea pigs'. In fact, he said that for majority of the drugs used in India, the 'guinea pigs' have been from US, Canada and other parts of Europe.

Sumedha Sahni, director- Operations & Clinical Trials, SRL Ranbaxy, said, time to market and cost are the two prime factors that concern pharma companies worldwide. With the large patient base available in India, the country can enable conduct of studies, economically. Contract research companies can actively tap opportunities in pre-clinical research, as pharma companies spend about 25 per cent of their profits in this research.

They were speaking in a function announcing the launch of Association of Contract Research Organisations (ACRO) at Hyderabad recently.