In Demand: Contract Research Organization

The India clinical trials market size is expected to reach US$3.15 billion by 2025, registering an estimated CAGR of 8.7% over the forecast period, ResearchAndMarkets.com reported on 13 Mar 2019.

Globalization of clinical trials, adoption of new technology in clinical research, growing disease variation and prevalence, and increasing R&D promoting outsourcing are the key factors driving the market.

The cost of carrying out clinical trials in India is nearly 40-70% less than that in Europe or the United States, according to a report by ResearchAndMarkets.

Thus, the cost efficiency, along with availability of skilled professionals, and ease of doing business, is anticipated to fuel the growth in the market which has a large pool of treatment-nave patient pool, said the report.

India, a country of nearly 1.3 billion individuals with varying genetic background, offers a large treatment-nave patient pool for development of therapeutics on a range of disease conditions, said the report.

Furthermore, the economic, environmental, and ecological variations in the 29 states and seven union territories in the country present the most diverse disease profiles.

For instance, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh have less dominance of non-communicable diseases as compared to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Goa, according to the ResearchAndMarkets report.

Despite this, Indian clinical trials market faced a lag phase from 2013 to 2015. This can be attributed to regulatory uncertainties, said the report.

This has promoted streamlining of the regulations and has led to increasing harmonization and reduction in approval time, thus making India a favorable destination for clinical trials.

The increasing R&D investments by pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies have led to increased demand for Contract research Organizations (CROs) and outsourcing of trials to curb the cost.

Furthermore, outsourcing enables drug companies to focus on their core competencies and aids in improving their productivity.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Phase I trials are projected to witness a remarkable CAGR of 10.5% over forecast period, attributed to increasing R&D spending by pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.

Interventional study design led the market Indian clinical trials market in 2017 owing to the greater accuracy offered by them as compared to observational study design.

Oncology led the indication segment in terms of market share in 2017 due to high prevalence of cancer and the consequent rise in demand for innovative therapies.

Some of the key companies present in the market are IQVIA, Inc.; ICON PLC; PRA Health Sciences; GVK Biosciences; PAREXEL International Corporation; and Syngene International Ltd.

Others covered in the report are – Pharmaceutical Product Development LLC, Charles River Laboratory, Chiltern International Ltd. (Covance Inc.), Syneos Health Inc. (Inc Research), SGS SA and Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited. fiinews.com