India is emerging as a major hub for global clinical trials and this new sector is poised to generate more revenue than the information technology industry by 2010, an industry leader has forecast.
"India is going to be one of the major hubs for clinical trials in the next five to seven years," Dr Krishna M Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International, one of India's largest biotech firms, said.
"I believe that by 2010, the revenue of clinical trials may surpass even software industry of India," Ella, who is heading a FICCI biotech delegation to China, said in Beijing.
Multinational companies like Aventis, Pfizer and Novartis have already moved the clinical trials to India, he said. One of the reasons for the growth of clinical trial sector is the availability of large number of private hospitals in India, he said.
"Almost 70 per cent of the hospitals in India are privately owned and most of the doctors are trained in the United States and the United Kingdom. Since they have English-language capability, they can understand the protocol and good clinical practices (GCP) issues.
This is a very significant factor for the clinical trials," Ella said.
The number of students undergoing masters degree in biotechnology is in the range of 150,000 170,000, which also helped the biotech industry to grow rapidly with required skilled manpower, he said.
India is also going to be a hub for research and development because most of the software industry are moving their R&D bases to India. "This is giving a platform for other companies to follow," Ella said, pointing out that Microsoft, HP, Sun and Oracle have already established such centres in India or were in the process of setting them up.
Another major development is that 20 privately-supported private drug discovery groups have started operations in India and their business mode is only to create innovation and intellectual property rights.
"This in itself is becoming a new model for the country," Ella said.
Stem cell is another area where India is taking the lead over other countries, Ella said. Welcoming the government's support, he said it was good thing that the Indian government recently released a policy guideline and also ethical issues that is relevant to the stem cell programme.
So far, some 300 patients have been treated for eye damages in India with stem cells, he said.
The stem cell research sector is bound to make faster growth which also brings together a clinician and a basic scientist which could benefit the patient. A number of Indian private hospitals, including some non-profit ones are doing a wonderful job in the stem cell, Ella said.
He said the Indian biotech industry, which is worth $500 million, is expected to grow at a rate of 30 per cent.
