A number of big pharmaceutical industries are now turning to the Indian sub continent for testing drugs. Clinical research outsourcing or CRO is a nascent industry valued at around $118 million and it is expected that it would reach the figures of $380 million by the year 2010 as a number of European and American companies are looking forward to India for cutting their drug development cost.
This would mean that the time length of research would get reduced and companies would be getting more time for selling their drug before the patent gets expired. As of now India still has a small share in global clinical trials but the share is expected to increase with increasing confidence of the companies in Indian regulatory framework and infrastructure.
Most of the companies shy from India due to the fear of their product being copied through reverse engineering but the trend changed when India signed GATT in 2005 for recognizing global patents.
