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Regulators need to curb unethical practices in human clinical trials, according to Prof. Gagandeep Kang, executive director, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute.
Subjects who volunteer for clinical trials are the heroes of modern clinical research said Prof. Kang, stressed in her keynote on the subject ‘Trials and Tribulations: Clinical Research in India’ at XIV International Conference on Public Policy and Management at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is being held on August 22 and 24, 2019.
“The very purpose of clinical research is to improve health. Hence, everyone who participates in clinical trials is a partner and should be deemed as champions of the cause, and hence it is the responsibility of professionals to serve these people to the best of our ability. Without their trust, the advancement of both clinical science and medical practice would falter,” she added.
“Such human studies need to be carried out responsibly and ethically, based on a relationship of trust with the participants and the findings are shared with the communities. There are regulatory bodies to raise the standard of clinical research and curb unethical practices. But although we have research centres institutes yet investment is still not at the level that it should be,” she lamented.
Prof. Kang, who is an Infosys Prize Winner in Life Sciences and in 2019 was elected to the Fellow of Royal Society, the first Indian woman to achieve this, began her address by providing a background of public health in India.
There is a need to build trust and accountability in clinical trials. Lack of value systems, deficient systems, sclerotic bureaucracy, hierarchy, restrictive policies and paucity of institutional support are some of the challenges of clinical research. High quality clinical research can be done in India. Policies can be changed with planning and evidence accumulation, she said.
Factors like public health research, appropriate training, mentoring, commitment to the communities that professionals work in building multidisciplinary research groups of young faculty, availability of academic positions and funding, working in collaboration with government and like-minded institutions, more investment in R&D have worked so far in this domain.
Going forward, we need to focus evaluating effectiveness and healthcare management. As academicians, we need to help the government in setting priorities, carry research, translate results into practice in India, besides extend and reinforce research and training, said Prof. Kang.
Dr. G Raghuram, director, IIMB, said that the Centre for Public Policy at IIMB had an induction effect on the other areas like marketing, finance or economics. Hence this conference was relevant to the public policy context in India.
Professor Hema Swaminathan, chair, Centre for Public Policy at IIMB set the context for the three-day conference which had eminent researchers and speakers sharing their perspectives on current policy issues like education in India, infrastructure development, health sector: issues and solutions, public expenditure review of health and education, barriers to trade, political economy and governance, trends in migration, economics of inequality among others.
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