Anna Univ to offer clinical trial course

[ganeshbala]

Anna Univ to offer clinical trial course

Anna University and Apollo Hospitals have tied up to offer a one-year course in Advanced Certificate Programme in Clinical Trial Management.

Clinical research in India will touch around $2 million by 2010 and, hence, there is a growing need for about 50,000 trained professionals for the management of clinical trials, K Srinivasan, programme promotion officer of AU-KBC Research Centre, MIT Campus of Anna University, told reporters here on Friday.

The programme is meant for graduates and post-graduates from biological and chemical sciences and dental, pharmacy and other allied systems of medicine.

The course fee for 1,500 contact hours, inclusive of six months of CRC, will be Rs 1.75 lakh payable in four instalments, he said.

Explaining the course content, Srinivasan said in the drug development process a crucial component pertained to the conduct of controlled clinical trials on humans, after successful pre-clinical studies for determining their safety and efficacy.

Dr M D Nair, a senior consultant to healthcare industry, said 70,000 clinical trials were on all over the world and 12,000 such trials were happening in India.

On the high cost of lifesaving drugs, Nair said the cost could be brought down with the setting up of an international pool of resources for developing nations.