teaser
US pharmaceutical companies are looking to India when testing drugs as the cost of conducting clinical trials is about 44% less expensive in the world’s largest democracy than in the US, according to research.
A study by pharmaceutical business intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information found that a clinical trial costs pharmaceutical companies on average $125 million (£75.25 million) in America compared with $70 million (£39.34 million) in India.
Overseas testing can also be beneficial for other reasons, such as ease of recruiting patients and increased chances of retaining subjects once trials begin.
The research found that in addition to India, other countries including Russia, China and Brazil are prime locations for clinical trials, in part due to improved trial conditions.
David Richardson, project leader of the study, said: “While cost levels of developing new drugs continue to rise in most geographic areas, companies are conducting clinical trials in India in order to conserve resources.”
Other areas covered in the report include resource allocation, performance measurement, continuous process improvement, patient and investigator recruitment and adaptive trial designs. Data include clinical development budgets, clinical operations team structures and staffing levels, performance measurement and management, clinical operations hurdles and process improvement tools and tactics.
Copyright PA Business 2008
