By Joe Herring

Although the globalization of clinical trials has provided benefits to host countries, critics have focused on the rare but egregious examples of unethical practices. But large, coordinated trials by the contract research industry can encourage best practice, particularly if local countries adopt more consistent standards and oversight.

As economic prosperity comes to developing nations, diseases associated with Western lifestyles, such as cancer and diabetes, are crossing borders. Meanwhile, developing countries are quickly becoming consumers of biopharmaceutical products. With the shared burden of disease comes the need to obtain safety and efficacy profiles across worldwide populations in a way that mirrors global disease epidemiology and treatment.

Increasing access to allow for more people to participate will be instrumental in clinical trials of the future. Developed nations are home to just 15% of the world’s population, yet they host three-quarters of all clinical trials. Clinical trials in emerging regions tend to take place in large urban centers where healthcare infrastructure can support research conducted according to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) standards. Compliance to these industry standards will strengthen the safety and quality of the research and increase public confidence in clinical trial participation.

Without further globalization, the pace of medical research would slow substantially. This is largely due to the reality that clinical trials are larger and more complex than they were ten years ago, and Western participation levels have peaked.

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Joe Herring is chairman and chief executive officer of Covance, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Currently, he also serves as chairman of the board of the Washington, DC–based Association of Clinical Research Organizations.