Roche Pharma Inks Deal with 10 Govt Hospitals to Scale Up Clinical Trial Network in India

The initiative, which has also been implemented in the US, the UK, Canada, and Africa, aligns with CDSCO and PRIP

In a major milestone towards the completion of the first phase of its flagship Advanced Inclusive Research (AIR) Site Alliance initiative, Roche Pharma has partnered with 10 leading government hospitals across India to enhance clinical trial capabilities.

Nearly 400 professionals, including investigators, ethics committee members, and support staff, have been trained according to global Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standards.

The 10 government hospitals include AIIMS, Rishikesh, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi; PGIMS, Rohtak; Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital & Research Center, Muzaffarpur; Balco Medical Centre, Raipur, Government Medical College, Aurangabad; Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Bengaluru; Bhubaneswar Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI), Guwahati; Kalyan Singh Super Speciality Cancer Institute & Hospital, Lucknow; Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer, Cuttack.

“By equipping leading government hospitals with global-standard clinical trial capabilities, we are helping to bring innovations faster to India. This is a crucial step toward building equitable healthcare and shaping treatments that are relevant for India,” said Sivabalan Sivanesan, Country Medical Director, Roche Pharma India.

“Most of the trials in the event we previously discussed are already underway; they are now able to accelerate the process to start these trials. Important procedures, such as ethics committee approvals, are being completed more quickly, allowing for more trials”, Sivanesan added.

Officer In-Charge at Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Ravikant Singh, said, “This is a very important project started by Roche Pharma. They have developed our institutional capacity for conducting clinical research. They helped us establish our own institutional ethics committee, and the entire team received guidance through various training sessions and supportive supervision to set up the clinical research secretariat.”

Highlighting the gap and the need to boost clinical trials, Singh said, “India accounts for 17% of the world’s population and 20% of the global disease burden, yet fewer than 4% of global clinical trials are conducted here”.

The initiative, which has also been implemented in the US, the UK, Canada, and Africa, aligns with CDSCO and Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation Policy (PRIP), which prioritises boosting government site participation, strengthening R&D, and building clinical trial infrastructure.

Further, it also supports the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision of making India a global hub for clinical research and equitable healthcare.

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