Nepal is currently facing a huge shortage of job opportunity leading to an incremental brain drainage from the country. All the faculties of educations are victims of this problem and same is the situation for clinical researchers and pharmacist. Working in the field of clinical research needs multiple expertise like sound knowledge of diseases, available treatment / therapies, research methodology, biostatistics, clinical operations and many more technical information along with organizational culture and teamwork skills. A well-functioning CRO can provide job opportunity and career growth platform to exercise all of these aspects for a clinical research aspirant.
Let us understand first about how a CRO functions in a brief. A CRO always conducts research for other companies on a contract basis. Any pharmaceutical or biomedical or biotechnology based medical device company will prepare their product by performing drug development and early phase research. A CRO will take their product and perform clinical trial leading to regulatory approval of that particular candidate so that it can go to the market at the earliest.
Why Nepal Needs a CRO?
There are many reasons why such organization should be established as soon as possible. I have enlisted few of them below:
1. Creating more job opportunities:
There is extreme lack of job opportunity for various medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacist and other auxiliary health professionals despite good competency on the subject matter. A contract Research Organization is definitely a good platform for all of the professionals in terms of experience as well as financial return.
2. Performing BPO:
Since CRO works in the contract basis with other pharma or biotechnological organization, they can outsource any or all of their work anywhere in the world based upon the need by business process outsourcing (BPO) method; companies do not have to conduct research in Nepal by itself, but they can outsource the work from other countries to here in Nepal and pay as per the work on need basis. Suh work can be performed from home as well as office, which means it is an opportunity for a working professional to earn their extra income and also for people who want to work remotely from anywhere from the country.
3. Opportunity to conduct large - scaled trials in the country
A CRO not only works on the basis of business process outsourcing (BPO), but also conduct research / trials on its own. In Nepal, we have enough hospitals and healthcare professionals but till date all the clinical trials that are being conducted are designed in some other countries and we are working just as data collectors. In future, if any vaccine candidates have to go through clinical trials, we can take up their product and conduct clinical trial on our own environment. Necessary skilled human resources will be produced from the corporations with enough of exposure on their respective fields.
4. Positive Impact on the country's economy:
Since we are on or below poverty line as per economic parameters and running out of foreign currency reserve due to very wide trade deficit, a large-scaled companies running within the country and bringing money into the economy from outside world is of utmost importance for the economy to function better. Quantitatively if a CRO functions well in the Nepal, government can benefit directly from taxation and bringing foreign currency into the Nepalese economy. But on wider view, positive impacts are much more and qualitative in nature. These can be listed in terms of payment scale, lifestyle, work culture, exposure and skills enhancement, personal development, fostering local businesses, tourism enhancement and for creating positive environment within the country so that upcoming generations can see their future in their own country.
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Thank You!!!
