CRC to further boost clinical research activities in Sabah
Kota Kinabalu: Health (Medical) Deputy Director-General Datuk Dr Jeyaindran Sinnadurai said the existence of Clinical Research Centres in the State will further boost research activities carried out among the staff of the Ministry of Health in Sabah.
“Today we are officiating the launching of this CRC building in Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
This is because in carrying out CRC it is better to have a building where those involved in research will be put in one area so records can be kept, there is a place where specialists and researchers and related Health Ministry staff can conduct their studies and research.”
He added that research can take the form of either investigative initiative research which is carried out by a specialist in a hospital or by pharmaceutical companies that come to a hospital where they have new drugs and they need to do international studies to find out the effectiveness and suitability of a drug worldwide.
“Research activities are not limited to physicians and medical officers only.
All categories of staff, including paramedics, are encouraged to engage in research activities either as principal investigators or as one of the researchers.”
He said this when met after the launching of the CRC building in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, here, Friday.
National Clinical Research Centre Director, Dr Goh Pik Pin, agreed that there was a need for CRC centres to be set up in each state and at each major hospital.
“This is because we find that with many patients some medicines are no longer effective and there is also the rise of new disease strains, including H1N1 and the Nipah virus, for example. So if we don’t carry out research, there may come a time where our existing drugs will no longer be effective.
“Also from a public health mission standpoint, it is to safeguard the public health, so we can receive the latest medicines like people in the West,” she said.
Goh said the Government has chosen to make clinical research as one of the Entry Point Projects 2 (EPP2).
Goh said another reason is the ‘country mission for research’ is where pharmacetical companies need to test the drugs as mentioned earlier but because it is cheaper to do in Asia and Malaysia and as most patients in Malaysia are not included as well in other studies unlike people in other countries, these companies prefer to come here.
“We have an advantage in Malaysia compared to say other countries like Singapore or India because many of our patients are not involved in previous medical research.
“The problem is most Singaporean patients are involved in clinical trials already and India has problems with patient safety, confidentiality and dignity issues so most big pharmaceutical companies have already left that country.
“So Malaysia is in a suitable position to attract these foreign direct investment opportunity,” she said.
Also present at the launching was Sabah State Health Director Dr Christina Rundi.
