Malaysia's genome variations ideal for clinical trial site - KJ

KUCHING - The genome variations of Malaysia from its diverse population offers the best and most ideal site for clinical trial research, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said genetic difference is one of the important aspects that researchers look into at clinical trial, especially in testing the efficacy of treatment.

Khairy said for this reason Malaysia is the best destination as there is no other country in the world which has one third of the world genomic profile.

"One third of the world is either Chinese and Indian and we have that here in Malaysia. We also have a huge other chunks including the Malay genomics profile.

"In science, genetic difference does makes the different as far as efficacy of treatment is concerned,” he said.

He was speaking at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between Novartis Malaysia, Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM) and Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here, today.

Meanwhile, Khairy said Malaysia also offers one of the lowest cost for clinical research and clinical trials in the region.

"Our time of trial is also one of the fastest in the world, from submission to ethical review in just one month.

"This has resulted in Malaysia now being the number two country in South East Asia for the number of industry sponsored clinical trials right now,” he said.

Khairy said since 2012, Malaysia has conducted over 1,900 sponsored clinical research.

"Last year, Malaysia conducted 215 new sponsored clinical research projects for a total contract value of RM226 million,” he added. - BERNAMA