What do they do?
It was a drug used initially for treating urinary tract infection and other ailments. Doctors in India treating tuberculosis (TB), however, discovered that Cyprofloxacin, when used with other anti-TB drugs, effectively cured the disease in shorter period of time.
An Australian doctor who went on to win the Nobel Prize found that acidity was not the sole cause of peptic ulcer. The real culprit was a microorganism called Helico Bacter Pylori. If patients were treated just for acidity they got temporary relief but the ulcer would recur. Killing the bug brought about a complete cure. The medical fraternity of the world was convinced of the bug-theory after innumerable clinical trials and articles published in leading medical journals.
Welcome to the world of clinical research, which is a branch of medical science that determines the safety and efficacy of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimes intended for use on human beings. These can be used for prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relieving symptoms of a disease.
“Clinical research means research work done in clinical science that includes all the (clinical) subjects of medical sciences together with drug research, material research, device or equipment research, genetic research, research related to diagnosis, treatment management, and public health issues,” says Dr S Y Kothari, additional director general health services and head of physical medicine and rehabilitation department, Safdarjung Hospital and Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College, New Delhi.
“The aim of clinical research is to improve healthcare in the society by making safe and effective drugs available at low costs,” says Shiv Raman Dugal, chairman, Institute of Clinical Research India (ICRI), a private sector institute imparting education on clinical research.
“When a product is developed it is first tried on animals, then on human volunteers and then released for consumption by the general population, leading to finality of a finished and government-approved product,” says Dr Kothari.
Who can become a clinical researcher? “Doctors – with specialistion say in cardiology, gastroenterology etc – who are trained in good clinical practice (GCP) can become clinical researchers,” says Dr Dhananjay Bakhle, executive vice president, medical research, Lupin Ltd. Cinical research is not taught in medical colleges. Doctors have to acquire the required knowledge and then become clinical researchers. “No certification is mandatory, to become a clinical researcher,” he says.
Dr Kothari, however has a different take. “Even an MBBS doctor can do clinical research. What is important is an objective and unbiased mindset,” he says.
But all researchers need not be doctors. Even a science (life sciences) graduate or a paramedic can work as a clinical researcher in the pharma industry or in a clinical research organisation that generally monitors and analyses the results of a trial.
“The clinical research market worldwide is worth over $52 billion, with 70 per cent of the business generated within the US,” says Dugal. Activities are picking up in India too. “Registered clinical trials in India have gone up from 221 in 2007 to around 1300 in 2009,” he adds. And the market is growing, thereby creating job opportunities. “Currently, 2.50 lakh positions in clinical research are said to be available worldwide with 50,000 job openings in India within the next three to five years,” he says. Little wonder then that Sanjay Gupta, an expert in the field, calls it a ‘sunrise industry’.
