Reliance Clinical Research Services has commenced studies for clients in the United States, the United Kingdom and West Asia in areas including infectious diseases, vaccines and oncology to take advantage of India's cost competitiveness and human resources.

RCRS is working for indication in oncology, burn wounds, cardiovascular, endocrinology, nephrology, gastroenterology, a Reliance media release said on Monday in Mumbai.

Commenting on this business initiative, Reliance Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani said clinical research services initiative was part of Reliance's bid to transform itself into a knowledge and services driven enterprise.

The costs of clinical trials in USA and Europe have skyrocketed, and recruiting qualified, 'therapy-naïve' patients -- patients who have not received any prior treatment -- could be extremely time consuming.

Many healthcare companies have found doing clinical trials in India an attractive option. Completing clinical drug trials and product development in India could be up to 75 per cent faster, he said.

As per Rabo India Finance, the average cost of doing Phase I, II and III drug trials in US are $20/50/100 million, respectively, and cost of conducting same trials in India cost 50-60 per cent of the same, the release said.

RCRS brings science to the market place by performing, assisting and managing pharmaceutical, biotechnology product and medical device development through preclinical and clinical (Phase I to Phase IV) studies, it said.

Reliance said India had provided exemptions for import duties on clinical trial products and eliminated the procedural hurdles that were prevalent in the past.

The country also had a very large pool of highly trained physicians, nurses, and technical personnel and numerous world-class medical facilities that meet the global requirements for clinical testing, it said.

The broadly developed infotech infrastructure in India provides added advantage to ensure speedy conduct of studies and flow of information and data from the sites to the sponsors' databases.

RCRS expects to leverage these strengths with its value proposition to deliver world-class clinical research services to global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and neutraceutical organisations, RIL executive vice-president K V Subramaniam said.