Novel to Nobel: Better research, better doctors, better health.

by Jasmine Leong

(From left) Deputy Director General of Health, Research
and Technical Support, YBhg Dato Dr Maimunah Abdul
Hamid, Minister of Health, Malaysia, YB Dato Sri Liow
Tiong Lai and Director of Clinical Research Centre, Dr
Goh Pik Pin officiating NCCR 2012.

The 6th National Conference for Clinical Research (NCCR)
was held in Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala
Lumpur from the 26th to 28th of September 2012.
This event was officiated by the Minister of Health, YB
Dato Sri Liow Tiong Lai; Deputy Director General of
Health, Research and Technical Support, YBhg Dato Dr
Maimunah Abdul Hamid; the Director of Clinical Research Centre (CRC), Dr Goh Pik Pin; and the
special guest of the event, Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Charles Doherty. The NCCR 2012
focused on the need to attract, nurture and retain expertise in various scientific and clinical
disciplines to meet growing demand for clinical trials from the biopharmaceuticals, medical devices
and generics sector.

Currently, there are 256 industry-sponsored researches with 140 ongoing and 119 new clinical
trials conducted in public, academic and private healthcare facilities. The Health Ministry hopes for
larger allocation for research and development (R&D) under Budget 2013, Research evidence
plays a key role in decision making and policy formulation in healthcare, (and so) the Ministry is
looking into ways to improve career pathways and performance
incentives for researchers. said the minister.

Scientific Poster Competition
Among the local success stories quoted in the conference were the
efforts of Veras Research Malaysia (VRM) for co-founding the novel
alliance of Asian country-based Clinical Research Organisation
(CRO). Asia CRO Alliance (ACA) is a collaboration between China,
Japan, India, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia in implementing clinical
trials. In June this year, Veras Research Malaysia participated in
the Drug Information Associations (DIA) 48th Annual Meeting in
Philadelphia to introduce Malaysia as a potential clinical trial site in
Asia. The Phase 1 Clinical Trials unit of CRC Veeda Malaysia has
successfully marked the potential of Malaysia as an international
clinical trial site with studies booked for 2013 including a large scale
study on Alzheimer disease commencing in September 2013 as
well as future collaborations with Australia and Japan.
In the same event, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between GlaxoSmithKline
Pharmaceutical Sdn Bhd (GSK) and the Government of Malaysia represented by the Ministry of
Health (MoH) Malaysia through the Clinical Research Centre (CRC) . The MoU signed aims to
further enhance Malaysias capacity in clinical research including training for healthcare
professionals, enhancement of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) critical to the conduct of
clinical trials and the inclusion of Malaysia in GSK Vaccines clinical development plans.
Clinical research in Malaysia is still at its infancy and yet promises great potential and
opportunities at elevating the overall standard of medical research and healthcare. With great
support, effort and direction from the government, industry and academic, translational research
could be a very important field of research here in time to come.
http://magazine.scientificmalaysian.com/issue-4-2013/event-report-6th-national-conference-clinical-research-nccr-
2012/