Punjab, Oct. 5 -- The ICMR has mandated that clinical trials it funds be built around Indian body types and Indian health data, with multicentre studies across at least five hospitals and funding of up to Rs 8 crore each.
Why a drug trial elsewhere does not transfer
This is the part worth understanding, because it is not nationalism dressed as science.
Indians develop type 2 diabetes at lower body weights and younger ages than European populations, with more visceral fat at the same BMI. A BMI threshold validated in Copenhagen misclassifies a substantial number of Indian patients as healthy.
Drug metabolism differs too. Variations in the liver enzymes that process many common medicines are distributed differently across populations, whi...