Clinical Research Education and Management Academy (CREMA), has tied up with US-based D Anderson & Company (DAC), an International Patient Recruitment and Retention organisation, to conduct a conference on patient recruitment issues in clinical trials in the country, in Mumbai on November 3 and 4, 2008.

"One of the biggest hurdles faced by Clinical Research Organizations (CROs) in the country today is the difficulty in getting patients for clinical trials not only in the case of critical diseases like Cancer and AIDS, but also in diseases like diabetes and heart ailments. This conference aims at providing in-depth strategies for CROs to successfully recruit and retain patients for clinical trials in India," said Vijay Moza, chairman, CREMA, a premier institute that offers state-of-the art education in clinical research.

D Anderson & Company has a reputation for excellence in global training programs. DAC's president and CEO Dr Diana L Anderson will be the faculty advisor to CREMA, who will be responsible for providing guidance and content for training clinical research professionals specializing in patient recruitment and retention.

"India anticipates a substantive increase in clinical trials, given global pressure to recruit more patients faster. Currently, there are no formal guidelines detailing acceptable patient recruitment methods. This provides a wealth of educational opportunities," said Dr Anderson.

Dr Anderson has conducted training programmes for clinical research professionals in Spain, China, Australia, Czech Republic, and Puerto Rico.

"With 1.1 billion inhabitants, large pool of treatment-naive patients, and english-speaking doctors (some of them even educated in the West), India is rife for clinical research studies," said Dr Deven Parmar, organizing secretary of the conference and vice-president, clinical research at Wockhardt.

Before 2006, the country was often overlooked by pharmaceutical companies for global studies due, in part, to questionable trial ethics, ltd intellectual property protection and the prevalence of generic pharmaceuticals produced by indigenous companies. Today, however, patient protection is no longer a barrier given the country's compliance with WTO.

D Anderson & Company is a leading provider of global patient recruitment and retention services for the clinical trials industry with more than 18 years of experience in more than 40 countries is a subsidiary of D.L. Anderson International, Inc.