"Global Trends in Clinical Research: India 2008," the 4th international conference on clinical research, organised by Institute of Clinical Research (India) and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), began in Mumbai. The event was inaugurated by Dr R K Srivastava, director general, Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, at Hotel Intercontinental, the Grand, Mumbai.

Dr S K Gupta, dean and director general, ICRI, said, "India is emerging as a key player in the clinical research market on a global platform. This conference aims to serve as an international and neutral forum to address current solid scientific research in India pertaining to global development of drugs and biologics. Besides discussing the global trends in clinical research, we also focused on the real-world issues, facing Clinical Research in India and wish to develop a consensus on how India should move forward to ensure efficient, accurate, auditable and ethical Clinical Research data. It was great interacting with the learned scholars and professionals from the field of Clinical Research from around the world".

The International Conference was attended by national and international experts from the pharmaceutical industry, academia and Government and regulatory bodies.

The opportunities for drug discovery and clinical development in India and the role of Government agencies was discussed at length by G J Samathanam, Advisor, Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India while, K K Tripathi, Advisor, Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India deliberated upon the opportunities and challenges in the biotechnology landscape in India. Some of the other noted speakers participated in the conference were Dr. Surinder Singh, drug controller general of India (DCGI), Dr N K Ganguly, former director general, ICMR, V Muthuswamy, senior deputy director, ICMR, , Stanley A Edlavitch, Professor of Epidemiology and director, Graduate Training, USA and Diana Anderson, president and CEO, DL International, USA, a release said.