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Context: Though India has been thought to be an ideal destination for conduct of clinical drug trials, other smaller countries seem to be doing better. The pace of growth observed during 2005-2009 seems to be plateaued in 2010. Aims: There is an urgent need for introspection and corrective actions. Materials and Methods: An online survey was conducted among various stakeholders from clinical drug trial industry in India regarding their perception about clinical drug trial industry in India. Respondents were requested to rate training of investigator sites, industry, performance of regulatory, etc. Results: Majority of respondent felt that the clinical drug trial industry in India is growing, though India is not utilizing its full potential. Lack of trained investigators and delay in regulatory approvals came out as biggest hurdles. Conclusions: Urgent steps need to be taken in terms of proper training of all stakeholders. Regulatory bodies ought to bring about some radical changes in the system so as to match the other competing nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (Type 2 DM) has been recognized as the recent pandemic; India and China competing each other for the title--"Diabetes Capital of the World." A number of new drugs have been recently available and has lead to a boom in the clinical drug trial industry. We intend to evaluate the trend of clinical drug trials in Type 2 DM over last one decade. Materials and Methods: Clinical drug trial registry of USA was used for getting the data regarding number of drug trials conducted in each country over last decade. India, China, and USA being the countries with highest prevalence of diabetes were included in the analysis. The percentage share of each country in clinical drug trials in Type 2 DM was compared with their percentage share in prevalence of Type 2 DM. Discussion: A significant growth in the drug trials in Type 2 DM was observed during 2005 to 2008, after which there has been a plateau. It was also recognized that India and China which contribute to around 30% of diabetic population of the world contributed in only 9.73% and 5.15% of drug trials in Type 2 DM during 2010, respectively. USA comprising of 15.15% of diabetic population of world was seen to have contributed in 38.36% of clinical drug trials in Type 2 DM. This raises a question of skewing in the data generated from various drug trials conducted in Type 2 DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]