HYDERABAD: Even with the advantage of a high population, experts said India has failed to leverage its advantage to become a global leader in clinical trials. With clinical trials dominating conversations on Day 2 of BioAsia 2025 on Wednesday, many stakeholders pointed out that countries like South Korea and Malaysia, with a fraction of India’s population, are excelling in clinical trials while India was still in the third or fourth phase of drug and treatment research and development.
Smruthi Suryaprakash from Boston Consulting Group said India bears 15% of the global disease burden and therefore needs to improve in clinical trials. “The high population could give varied datasets and digital infrastructure from schemes like Ayushman Bharat. It could be utilised for research, with a critical need to persuade people to make India a leading global destination for clinical trials,” she said.
The experts pointed out some major challenges for the clinical trials in India, including poor infrastructure and lack of systematic patient profiling. They said these challenges existed in India despite huge datasets, fearful mindset towards trials amongst patients and lack of knowledge of ongoing trials.
President and Global Head of Parexel International Sanjay Vyas said, “India has over 5,000 investigative sites, but around 150 are active. In Tier-I cities, 40% of clinical trial sites struggle with participation.”
He stressed that poor infrastructure and patient profiling were the biggest challenges for clinical trials in India. “The country has the potential for phase 1 molecule testing, nevertheless, education on clinical trials is crucial,” he added.