Expert: Upgrades needed to become regional research hub
More can be done to advance Malaysia’s standing as the main hub for clinical research in the region, says a health expert.
Even though the country has seen positive growth in sponsored clinical research, raking in over Rm1.16bil in cumulative gross national income since 2012, Prof Dr Sazaly Abu Bakar said there are areas that should be improved to level up Malaysia’s position as the main country in the field.
The Universiti Malaya Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre executive director said the ecosystem needs to be improved to facilitate more efficient registration of products for clinical trials, with particular focus on locally developed products.
In order to maintain Malaysia’s potential as a regional hub for clinical trials moving to first-inhuman trials, Sazaly said there is also a need to allocate more sizeable and dedicated research funding towards the development of products that will go into the clinical trial pathways.
“We also need to develop infrastructure that will allow for rapid transition of research output into clinical trials,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Such recommendations are important, according to Sazaly, as the current infrastructure is insufficient to enable Malaysia to take clinical research to the next level and be on par with other developed countries in Asia, such as South Korea and Japan.
At the Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM) Trial Connect 2024, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said sponsored clinical research in Malaysia has achieved the highest growth in 2023, with a 24% increase when compared to 2022.
Anwar said clinical research also brought in 2,700 skilled jobs in the field, proving its positive impact on the socio-economic side.
On April 22, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the country has recorded a historic total of 276 sponsored clinical research as of 2023, which cemented the country’s position as the number two in industrysponsored clinical trials in Southeast Asia.
He said clinical research also has a profound impact on Malaysia’s healthcare, especially through increasing access to innovative research treatments for patients.
In 2022, the then health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia had the potential to become a world-class hub for clinical research due to its multiethnic population’s genomic diversity.
Khairy said the country’s diverse population would benefit from clinical trials seeking to understand the effectiveness of a new therapy across a diverse Asian population.
In addition, he said Malaysia was relatively low-cost for clinical research and trials, while the time to trial in the country was one of the fastest in the world.