PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has set up the National Healthy Research Volunteer Register (NHRVR) as a commitment to ensuring the integrity and safety of clinical trials in the country.

       Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, (pic) when launching the platform virtually yesterday, said the initiative would increase Malaysia’s capability to conduct clinical trials in accordance with global standards.

       He added that there was a pressing need in Malaysia to detect duplication by volunteers as proactively conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States, which had verifiable trial registries.

       “By creating a platform to prevent over-volunteering by volunteers, we hope to avoid costly screening procedures and improve transparency between clinical research centres for recruitment strategies, ” he said.

       He explained that the NHRVR platform would adopt the concept for the clinical trial set by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency for Inspection and Accreditation Program for First in Human clinical trials.

       Dr Noor Hisham added that the establishment of the NHRVR under the Health Ministry’s Institute for Clinical Research was only accessible by registered and trained users, thus ensuring that data security and confidentiality were preserved. — Bernama