Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is organizing a two-day international workshop on 'Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Product Development and Clinical Research: The Need for a World-Class Environment in India' at New Delhi on October 26 and 27, 2006.

The meeting will focus on the broad regulatory challenges that need to be addressed in India to streamline the path from clinical research to product development, thus leading to the availability of effective products for the prevention and treatment of acute and chronic diseases. The goal will be to identify concrete solutions to those challenges.

The co-organizers of the workshop are the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Embassy of the United States of America. The workshop is a follow-up to the meetings of the Indo-US High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG).

The meeting will give an opportunity to the participants from industry, academia and the Indian government to produce a blueprint for action that will facilitate making India a world class destination for these key sectors.

It will consist of a more formal part and a more interactive part. After a series of talks by Indian and US experts about different regulatory environments and their common characteristics, the second day the workshop participants will discuss the most important issues in the regulatory process in India and suggest specific solutions for the key aspects of such a process. On the final day the recommendations of each group will be presented to the decision makers in the government.