With the discovery of antibiotics humanity has defeated diseases like the plague, tuberculosis and others that were taking millions of lives. In spite of the fact that the human body gets weak with age and that we are burdened by the modern day diseases, the average life span has been prolonged – it is already over 80 in developed countries.
Citizans od Serbia live on average for 73,9 years, and if you believe statistics, the average life span in Serbia in the last 15 years has been prolonged for one year for women and two years for men.
The longer life span depends, primarily, on conditions of living but also on the development of medicine. Some scientist predict that the life span in developed countries will be over 100 years, with the help of miniature robot-size blood cells – nanobots which will maintain our health on the cell and molecular levels.
Would it be possible to find “guinea pigs” for the testing of this technology in Serbia. Would it be possible to beat many diseases that have killed millions of people if medicine hadn’t found the first cure and if it hadn’t been tested before that on people who were “voluntary guinea pigs”?
Without the clinical studies about drugs which involve their testing on humans, there is no progress in the healing of diseases. That is one of the phases of testing which comes right after the drug has been tested in labs and on animals.
Clinical drug studies are being done in Serbia too, which has become very interesting, after the hold back during the 90’s, for pharmaceutical companies which, through CRO organizations (contracted research organizations), look for doctors that will test the drugs on voluntary patients. One of the reasons for Serbia becoming suitable for clinical testing of drugs is, sadly, a great number of oncology patients and patients with rare diseases.
Why Serbia: Some of the foreign companies have started looking at Serbia like an interesting destination for the clinical testing of drugs. Rori Galagher, a member of the Department for regulation relations one of the leading world CRO companies, Chiltern International, says that Serbia has position itself, more than any other former Yugoslavian country, as a strong European center for high quality and profitable clinical trials.
In the study “ Clinical trials in Serbia : from good to better” Galagher states that Serbia has become one of the most popular destinations in this area and that there are a lot of prestige university hospitals and clinical centers with highly qualified medical staff in Serbia.
“Serbians trust medical workers, which contributed to Serbia becoming known, in a positive sense, for a high rate of patient recruiting and a high percentage of patient’s consents. This is especially evident in clinical trials in oncology, rare diseases as well as pediatrics, which is becoming hard to conduct in western countries because of the unwillingness of patients”, Galagher says.
What he liked was the fact that the process of evaluation is quick and that you can get the approval for trial in 30 days.
