IRL-Synexus, part of the UK-based Synexus, is planning to expand its clinical trial and subject recruitment operations in India covering areas like oncology, respiratory and dermatology as the country is expected to register 30 per cent growth in the segment.
"India has come of age in participating in the global clinical trials. There is a growing awareness among the patients and the regulatory system has improved a lot compared to other countries. The people accept the technology," Jane Restorick, Synexus director in charge of international clinical operations told Pharmabiz.
Assessing the potential of India in the sector, she said the country has skilled medical staff, good infrastructure and more awareness among the patients with regard to clinical trials. The segment would register a growth of 30 per cent in the next 5-10 years, she added.
The global leader in patient recruitment began its operations in India in 2005 and at present its two projects on cardiovascular area are going on. It has assisted for 106 clinical trials in UK alone by recruiting over 20,000 patients since 1998. It has operations in six countries - Bulgaria, UK, Hungry, Poland, South Africa and India.
"We are now planning to move from primary care to secondary care. The focused and potential areas in India will be oncology, respiratory, dermatology, besides the cardiovascular projects,'' Jane said.
Referring to the apprehensions in some quarters about Indians are being freely made guinea-pigs for trials, she said the global pharma majors have own surveillance system and the trials are being launched in India after long toxicology studies in the Europe.
She said the regulatory system in the country has improved and the delay in clearing the projects has come down, compared to countries like South Africa. Considering the language skills and infrastructure, the company has selected only India for the operations.
IRL-Synexus has a network of multiple, dedicated, GCP-compliant clinical research centres all over India. These centres conduct phase II - phase IV clinical trials both is OPD and in hospital facility across all basic and specialized therapeutic areas.
Synexus Clinical Research plc, based in Lancashire, is the largest patient recruitment SMO in Europe. The group provides clinical trials management services for the global pharmaceutical industry, and contract research organisations (CROs).