Call to increase research, data gathering on local diseases

It is very unfortunate that the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan is not conducting research locally and the medicines they develop and sell here are based on research, clinical trials and studies conducted abroad.

To redress the situation, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) must compel local and multinational pharmaceutical companies to conduct clinical trials, health studies and research locally.

This was stated by Prof Dr Tariq Rafi, vice chancellor of Jinnah Sindh Medial University, while talking to newsmen after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Clinision, an internationally-acclaimed Contract Research Organisation, for promotion of digital research in the field of healthcare.

Under the MoU signed between Clinision and JSMU, the former will provide a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compliant digital data capturing software, ‘eTrials’, for use by JSMU students and researchers.

The firm would also provide training and technical support to ensure that research could be conducted in a paper-less environment with minimum wastage of time and resources. Lamenting the lack of credible data gathering efforts and research on local diseases and their causes in Pakistan, Prof Rafi stated that the lack of local research was seriously hampering efforts to formulate national-level strategies for disease management in Pakistan.

“Most studies in medical literature deal with diseases which are common in Europe and America. There is little information on local diseases and their causes. For instance, mouth cancer is very common in the Indian subcontinent and European medical books contain little to no data on it,” he said. The JSMU VC deplored the lack of national registries of various diseases, particularly cancer, and said local doctors were compelled to rely on foreign data which held little local relevance.

The chief executive officer of Clinision, Syed Jamshed Ahmed, said the organisation had selected the JSMU for a partnership to provide local researchers, especially students, the modern technology needed to promote a culture of scientific research in Pakistan.