New Delhi, Aug 9 (Inditop.com) Being the world’s third largest producer of drugs by volume and the third largest drug research and development workforce, India is fast becoming the most preferred destination for contract research and clinical trials, says a study by an industry lobby.
A joint study by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and Ernst and Young found clinical trials in India cost 50-60 percent cheaper than in the developed markets.
“The Indian market is growing by leaps and bounds and is gearing itself to becoming one of the fastest growing clinical research destinations with a growth rate that is two and a half times the overall market growth,” the industry study said.
The country has a booming domestic pharma market that is growing at a rate of 12-14 percent annually.
“The number of investigators in India has also grown the fastest among Asian, Latin American and Eastern European countries with a 42 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2002-2008,” the study added.
Additionally, the fact that India has 840,000 hospital beds in urban areas, over 600,000 English-speaking physicians and nearly 100,000 specialists, with many of them having been trained in the best global institutes, also adds to India’s competitiveness.
The study said this was also a prime reason that nine of the top 15 global pharmaceutical and biotech companies have set up captive clinical research centres in the country.
India constitutes 16 percent of the global population with 20 percent of the global disease burden.
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