‘We need to encourage innovation, not deter scientific & medical community’

Rating: 1/ 10

While a lot has been spoken about access to healthcare, the role of innovation in access to healthcare, especially for unmet medical needs has not got the emphasis it deserves. The rating therefore would be 1/10 from a clinical research perspective.

Given the Government’s commitment to ‘Health for All’, there has been inadequate focus on the life sciences sector in the first 100 days.

Need to create an ecosystem that fosters research and innovation

A lot needs to be done to ensure better and more affordable healthcare for our population. From a clinical research perspective, we need to create an ecosystem that fosters research and innovation. The decision to include Rotavirus vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) which the Minister of Health has hailed as “one of the most pro-people decisions taken by any Government in recent years because it has the potential to drastically reduce infant mortality, particularly among the poorest sections of society,” demonstrates the high calibre of R&D skills available in the country as also how public-private partnership can successfully work together to address cures and treatment for illnesses that affect our country.

We need to encourage innovation and not deter the scientific and medical community from continuing in the quest to find safer and more effective treatment for our disease burden. It is only through clinical research that we will be able to find newer and better medicines to treat our population and reduce mortality rates for various diseases, including those unique to our part of the world. We need a quick turnaround in some of the amendments to contentious guidelines as well as quicker and more streamlined approvals. The Government can play a major role in using its channels to create better awareness and education about clinical research so that patients are aware of their rights and responsibilities and the public misconceptions are addressed.

The way forward

There needs to be an investment in infrastructure and capacity building within the regulatory department.

– Suneela Thatte, President, ISCR