KARACHI: Over 435,000 clinical trials were registered in different countries of the world last year for the purpose of research in the area of healthcare, of which only 610 were initiated in Pakistan while India is earning over $5 billion by conducting clinical trials in the healthcare sector alone, leading healthcare experts said on Wednesday.
Urging young physicians, academicians and healthcare professionals to initiate research projects on the health issues facing the Pakistani population, as well as, South Asians, they said without conducting local research and studies, causes and treatment of emerging health issues could not be taken care of in the years to come.
They were speaking at a news conference at Karachi Press Club (KPC) where a multi-million-rupee project was launched to offer financial assistance to local researchers and healthcare professionals for conducting research in different areas of key segments of health sciences with a timeline to complete their studies.
Designed and launched by Pharmevo Research Forum, the project would engage different researchers and healthcare professionals from Pakistan who would be awarded research grants up to Rs300,000 each by the research body for the research work that would lead to identify the areas which needed immediate government attention, policymaking, healthcare solutions of healthcare modification and innovative ideas of providing best and low-cost treatment facilities to the people of Pakistan.
At the press conference, leading researchers and healthcare experts regretted that the authorities which were expected and supposed to give go-ahead for the clinical trials and research in the medical field, had actually emerged as key hurdle in approving research projects while lacking enough qualified people to timely such decisions.
They called for conducting clinical trials of medicines invented in the West on the people in Pakistan before they are given registration by local regulatory authorities, saying Pakistanis and other South Asians are ethnically and genetically different from Western people.
“People of Pakistan and other South Asians are different from people in the Europe and Americas and research has proven that we metabolise medicines differently than people in the West. There is a need to start local trials of medicines and collect indigenous data to come up with local solutions of different diseases and health conditions,” said Dr Jahan Ara of Dow University of Health Sciences.
Dr Bader Fayyaz Zuberi, a professor of medicine, regretted that the health fraternity in Pakistan didn’t enjoy exact data and trustworthy numbers which were crucial for research based initiative in the field of health sciences.
“The WHO number says that only in 2022, more than 435,000 clinical trials were conducted among which only 610 were from Pakistan which is drastically low compared to the quantum of our population in the world,” he said.
Haroon Qassim, MD PharmEvo recalled the history back in 2002 when he took initiative to launch research-focused projects which would ultimately help a common man and exploit potential of local professionals.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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