India is emerging as a destination for Clinical Research Outsourcing because of the inherent advantages like a large pool of treatment naïve patient population, 700,000 speciality hospital beds, 221 medical colleges and skilled English-speaking medical personnel and and timely completion of projects. India has already proven itself as a chosen destination for IT and BPO outsourcing because of its ability to provide infrastructure and an educated workforce to match it at a much lower cost. It is predicted that Clinical Trials revenue would grow to anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion by 2010.

Seeing the business opportunity being offered to India in the field of Clinical Research, the Government of India has stepped up with a lot of new initiatives to make it lucrative for Pharmaceutical Companies to do their Clinical Research in India. It is also taking care that the Clinical Trials are done in an ethical fashion.

The clinical trial industry in India in general has been shaping up in the past few months, while the government has been tightening the regulation of clinical research activities. The Health Ministry recently proposed a draft bill, under which the Central Drugs Authority (CDA) would have the power to prosecute CROs, investigators and pharma companies who violate rules of clinical trials.