Abstract
The rapid economic growth in China in recent years has attracted many foreign investments in the pharmaceutical industry. Many foreign pharmaceutical companies have brought clinical trial projects into China with the aim of obtaining marketing approval and faster market penetration of their products; some are performing early phase studies for international New Drug Application submission. This has contributed to a steady increase in clinical trial activities in China in recent years.
China is a huge country with a population of around 1.2 billion people. It is estimated that there are two million physicians working in more than 100,000 clinics and 65,000 hospitals throughout the country. Clinical trials are being conducted in most of the major teaching hospitals and affiliated hospitals of the 130 medical schools, particularly those in the major cities in the country. Although awareness of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) is still rather limited, the Chinese health authorities have made great efforts in teaching GCP with the aim of promoting the conduct of quality clinical trials in China. A national GCP guidelines is being finalized and it is expected that implementation of the guidelines will further improve the quality of trials and promote clinical activities in the country.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.