Clinical Pharmacology in India-A Systematic Review of Research in the Past 5 Years

Abstract

The Indian National Science Academy has published two Status Reports on Pharmacological Research (1984 & 2000). The International Council for Science (ICSU) National Committee for Pharmacology has commissioned the third status report on Pharmacological Research in India covering the last 5 years. This systematic review covers the status of research in Clinical Pharmacology (excluding pharmacogenomics, pharmacovigilance, pharmaco-economics). We searched PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar to extract published articles in the various sub-categories like drug discovery and development, clinical trial methodology & biostatistics, medical education, ethics, drug utilization research, therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacodynamics, therapeutics and systematic reviews. This report presents a summary of the published research in the last 5 years, discusses some of the challenges and how some steps can be taken to raise the standards of clinical pharmacological research in India.

ICMR National Virtual Centre for Clinical Pharmacology with Network of Rational Use of Medicines & Product Development Centres

“…However, it could not be started due to paucity of funds. The need for an institute was again reiterated in a review of clinical pharmacology research in India 7 for developing products for Indian population and rational use of medicines. Furthermore, it was noted that drug development in academia and Government funded institutions is hampered by inadequate trained manpower, lack of interaction between industry and academia/public research institutions 8 9 , and between basic sciences and clinical researchers.…”