KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — Health Ministry (MoH) aims for clinical trials industry to contribute more than RM2 billion to the gross national income (GNI) in the next 10 years.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the industry was undergoing a very rapid progress and next year, the GNI would surpass RM1 billion through projects or contracts for clinical trials and research carried out in Malaysia since 2012.

"Through the development under Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM) for 10 years, we see that it will cross the RM1 billion mark, I am confident that in the next 10 years, we will be able to surpass another RM1 billion.

"It’s just that the quantum amount depends a lot on the agreement signed, our competence, how many people we can train to become investigators and so on,” he told a press conference after the CRM Trial Connect 2022 here today.

Meanwhile, Khairy wants more doctors in this country to start investigator initiated research (IIR) projects because they know more about the diseases suffered by patients in Malaysia.

"We will collaborate with the Ministry of Higher Education to improve this investigator initiated research,” he said.

Earlier, Khairy witnessed the signing of three memorandums of understanding (MoU) between CRM and Japan’s National Centre for Global Health and Medicine; Japanese research company Remedy and Company Corporation and Japan’s National Cancer Centre on clinical trials and research. — Bernama