To be called 'Shivrath Centre of Excellence and Clinical Research', the institute is the brainchild of Shivprakash, director of Ahmedabad-based CRO Synchron and Bhagirath K Patel, director of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Sat Kaival College of Pharmacy in Anand. Together with other colleagues in the clinical research industry, the duo came up with the blueprint of a specialised clinical research institute where students could be ready to be taken up by industry as soon as they graduate. The initiative caught the attention of the GSBTM which has decided to pick up 11 per cent stake in the venture. |
The institute will start operations in June with its first programme titled Post-Graduate Diploma in Clinical Research (PGDCR), which will have an intake of 50 students for the first batch.
The programme will have six modules with theory lessons and practical workshops. The campus will be set up in Ahmedabad and will be wired with WiFi. Over 60 faculty members are expected to take classes at the institute, which will include full-time faculty, visiting faculty as well as professionals from clinical research across the country.
"Gujarat has now acquired a sizeable share of the CRO market in India and manpower is a crucial issue for consolidating this further. A number of government universities have shown interest in affiliating with the programme and we are weighing options in this regard for the next batch," said Shivprakash. According to a McKinsey Report, the global clinical trial outsourcing to India in the pharmaceutical industry is estimated to reach around Rs 5,000 crores by the year 2010, and there will be requirement of approximately 50,000 Clinical Research professionals.
With high attrition rates in the CRO industry, Synchron is not the only one to concentrate on the education services sector. Ahmedabad-based Vibgyor Scientific Research has set up a research institute called 'Vibgyor Scientific Research Institute' which offers a six month part-time evening programme in clinical research. The programme has an intake of 20 students and claims to have placed all its students in clinical research jobs across the country.
Bina Naik, Medical Director-Clinical Research at Vibgyor said that most CROs were turning to their own resources for training and educating graduates to make recruitment easier and effective. "The attrition rate in the industry is as high as 25 per cent which is mainly due to the number of CROs coming up in the country and boom in the clinical research field.
By training graduates at the company's own institute, employees are able to absorb into the culture of the organisation easily," said Naik. The company will touch 50 employees by June this year and is looking to reach more than 60 by the end of the year.
Similar views were echoed by Neeru Madan, VP, HR of Lambda Therapeutics, another Ahmedabad-based CRO, which is looking at employing 55 to 60 people in the next three to four months. The company has launched a programme called 'Unnati Fast Track', which is a career programme for bright young employees to move up the corporate ladder. "Retaining manpower is the most critical component for the growth of a company. To encourage employees we send them on clinical research expositions abroad," said Madan.
"Trained Clinical Research professionals will also be in demand abroad. There are more than 250,000 positions vacant worldwide and salaries in the US vary in the region of approximately $40,000 per annum for a Clinical Research Co-ordinator to almost $100,000 per annum for a Business Development Manager," said SK Gupta, Director-General and Dean of Institute of Clinical Research India (ICRI).
