Challenges of conducting clinical trials in Asia

Unlike North America and European Union (EU), Asian continent appears to be an ideal destination for conducting cost-effective clinical trials utilizing the pool of treatment naïve subjects. With a population approaching 4.5 billion, recruitment of subjects can be done without a fear of limited patient pool across Asia. The burden of infectious and chronic diseases is also higher in Asian countries. The emerging clinical trial markets particularly China, South Korea, and Taiwan offers genetic diversity in population group, thus promoting the quality and generalizability of clinical trial’s data. Nonetheless, several challenges also exist for the Western sponsors in majority of the Asian countries; regulatory, operational and infrastructural challenges are atthe forefront. Challenges under the heads regulatory, operational, infrastructural, language and cultural, ethics, and future challenges have been discussed. SWOT analysis of Asian clinical trial’s market exhibits enormous opportunities for study sponsorswith manageable threats.

Surgical trends in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and their outcome

Parkinson's disease [PD] is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders featuring the cardinal symptoms of resting tremors, postural instability, rigidity, bradykinesia and akinesia treated with a range of medicinal agents. The traditional drug therapy usually involves levodopa, the most potent drug for controlling PD symptoms, along with catechol-O-methyl-transferase inhibitors [COMTI], dopamine agonists and nondopaminergic drugs. For the last few years the treatment includes surgical techniques specially deep-brain stimulation, subthalamotomy, pallidotomy, thalamotomy, etc. The lay literature and mass media descriptions of surgery for PD often give patients and their families the impression that today's surgical procedures offer miraculous results to all patients undergoing this treatment. However, it is an important fact that these new treatments are not necessarily better than the established conventional drug therapy and that the treatment options must be selected according to the need of individual patient