India is emerging as a major hub for global clinical trials and this new sector is poised to generate more revenue than the information technology industry by 2010

According to Dr Krishna M Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International, one of India's largest biotech firms, India is going to be one of the major hubs for clinical trials in the next five to seven years. Dr. Ella said that by 2010, the revenue of clinical trials may surpass even software industry of India.

Multinational companies like Aventis, Pfizer and Novartis have already moved the clinical trials to India, he said. One of the reasons for the growth of clinical trial sector is the availability of large number of private hospitals in India, he said.

Almost 70 per cent of the hospitals in India are privately owned and most of the doctors are trained in the United States and the United Kingdom. Since they have English-language capability, they can understand the protocol and good clinical practices (GCP) issues. This is a very significant factor for the clinical trials

The number of students undergoing masters degree in biotechnology is in the range of 150,000−170,000, which also helped the biotech industry to grow rapidly with required skilled manpower, he said.

India is also going to be a hub for research and development because most of the software industries are moving their R&D bases to India. This is giving a platform for other companies to follow. Microsoft, HP, Sun and Oracle have already established such centres in India or were in the process of setting them up.

Another major development is that 20 privately supported private drug discovery groups have started operations in India and their business mode is only to create innovation and intellectual property rights.

Stem cell is another area where India is taking the lead over other countries. So far, some 300 patients have been treated for eye damages in India with stem cells, he said.

(Source: http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/sep/21trial.htm?q=bp&file=.htm)