The Apollo group has always taken initiative to promote the troika of service, research and education in India. Apollo Hospitals Research and Education Foundation (AHERF), have made constant efforts to promote learning with experience. AHERF, New Delhi has initiated a joint venture with government regulatory body and drug industry to launch a Certificate Course in Clinical Research. The course will highlight all aspects of drug development from discovery to human use to post marketing surveillance. It will be an 18 months course which would include 12 months of internship at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital to train the students with the ‘ hands on' experience on all stages of drug development.

Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, Chairman of the Committee of Management at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi and the Coordinator Prof. V.S.Mathur are themselves taking an initiative to prepare for the session starting from July 1, 2008. Students with a graduate degree in Medicine, Pharmacy, Veterinary sciences, biotechnology, biochemistry, microbiology are eligible for the course. The interviews for admissions are scheduled for June 19, 2008 of which only 15 competent students would be selected from the pool of applicants. Students will have a complete educational experience with the hand picked faculty and prominent personalities from the academia.

It is to be noted, that recently India has left China behind in outsourcing for conducting clinical trials. India gets, according to the Planning Commission 139 clinical trials against 98 for China. The market value of clinical trials outsourced to India is estimated around $300 million in 2006 which is expected to touch $1.5 -2 billion by 2010.

This means we have to have a large number of trained personnel to man these various research slots in the drug industry. The Apollo group understood the need and has come forward to contribute towards fulfilling the demand of niche segment.

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