The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has offered US$ 1 million by January 1, 2007 for setting up of a permanent institutional set up for amplifying the quality of clinical research being carried out in the country. The proposed institution is meant to be a private-public-partnership venture with prime objective to help train clinical researchers.

Announcing this, Dr M K Bhan, secretary, DBT said that the institution should be able to help creation of functional ethics committees, train hundreds of good clinical researchers, focus on customs issues, conduct research work and analysis and be a single point contact for all clinical research purposes.

Stressing the importance of quality clinical research work, Dr Bhan said that the response DBT received from even prestigious institutions to their call for clinical trial proposals were pathetic. "The best quality issues are not engrained even in our best institutions," he lamented. The need for a structure of governance of change arises out of this situation, he pointed out.

The structure for capacity building for clinical research should be ideally housed outside the government set up, he felt. The government agencies are regulatory bodies and are not facilitators in the strictest sense. Apex industry bodies like Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) should come forward to initiate such facilitation centres, he said.

The DBT and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) could jointly support the public-private-partnership venture, he added.