COMSTECH & Maroof International Hospital jointly inaugurated 2-day international training in randomized controlled Clinical trials, at COMSTECH Secretariat, on Thursday.
Prof. K. H. Mujtaba Quadri, Chair Research and Head of Nephrology, Maroof Clinical Investigation Center, Maroof International Hospital, Islamabad, stressed the need of training in conducting controlled trials and called for joint strategy.
He has delivered keynote speech at the occasion. Prof. Quadri, talked about history, and legacy of clinical trials initiation and gave a comprehensive guidelines of the current course, including etiquettes to be followed during the course, in his speech.
Dr. Abdur Rasheed, Director, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, informed about the current clinical trials being conducted in Pakistan and stressed the need of capacity building through training of researchers in conducting clinical trials.
Dr. Ghazna Khalid, Member Prime Minister’s Task Force for COVID19, said that we have potential of conducting clinical trials, and we should train our researchers to perform quality trials.
Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan, Vice-Chancellor, Health Services Academy (HSA), chaired the inaugural session. He said that HSA and COMSTECH has joined hands to carry out joint projects for capacity building in public health sector as well as health care research.
He appreciated the idea of Prof. Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH, that we should out-reach to the OIC countries that are in urgent need of strengthening of their public health system.
Coordinator General, COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary welcomed the participants and appreciated the contribution of key institutions involved in clinical trials. Prof. Choudhary, stressed the need of training in conducting world-class clinical trials and termed it immensely important as first step towards drug security.
Prof. Choudhary guided the researchers to prove our immense treasure of traditional medicine through clinical trial and develop modern drugs from them for not only indigenous use but also for export to the other nations and earn foreign exchange. He also stressed the need of developing drugs for diabetes and neglected diseases like Leishmaniasis, and Leprosy.
More than 540 researchers got registered, in this hybrid course, from some 15 OIC member states, and over 50 participants have joined it in-person at COMSTECH. This ten sessions long, 2-day training, is being conducted by national and international experts working in the field.