Cited by 406Global Health and SurgeryHealth and Medical Research ImpactsEthics in Clinical Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 78 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 172 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Barriers for conducting clinical trials in developing countries—A systematic review

Open access
Alemayehu, Chalachew, Mitchell, Geoffrey, Nikles, Jane·2018·International Journal for Equity in Health

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials for identification of efficient and effective new diagnostic and treatment modalities are needed to address disproportionately high burden of communicable (e.g., HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria) and non-communicable diseases (e.g., diabetes) in developing countries. However, gross under-representation in global clinical trial platforms contributes to sustained health inequity in these countries. We reviewed the literature on barriers facing clinical researchers in developing countries for conducting clinical trials in their countries. METHODS: Literature indexed in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and Web of Science, WHO Global Health Library were searched. Grey literature was also searched. Search key words included barriers, challenges, clinical trials and developing countries. Articles within the scope of this review were appraised by two reviewers. RESULTS: Ten studies, which are reported in 15 papers, were included in this review. Following critical review we identified five unifying themes for barriers. Barriers for conducting clinical trials included lack of financial and human capacity, ethical and regulatory system obstacles, lack of research environment, operational barriers and competing demands. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: There were substantial barriers at system, organization and individual level. We propose that to address this problem, instituting a system for wider implementation of local investigator-initiated trials is warranted. These trials are more applicable to local populations because they build on local healthcare knowledge. They are more demand-led, influence policy and responsive to a country's needs because they are driven by a local or national agenda.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This systematic review identifies five unifying barriers to conducting clinical trials in developing countries: lack of financial and human capacity, ethical and regulatory obstacles, lack of research environment, operational barriers, and competing demands. The authors argue that wider implementation of local investigator-initiated trials is warranted to address these system-, organization-, and individual-level barriers.

Key findings

  • Ten studies reported in 15 papers were included; 1,915 titles/abstracts were screened and 1,900 were excluded as out of scope.
  • Five barrier themes were identified: lack of financial and human capacity; ethical and regulatory system obstacles; lack of research environment; operational barriers; and competing demands.
  • Lack of funding was reported across all included articles except two studies conducted in Saudi Arabia; lack of skilled personnel and lack of awareness/motivation were also reported as human-capacity barriers.
  • Of four quantitative studies, one was high quality, two medium, and one low; one medium-quality study had a 23% response rate (92/404), and the low-quality study had a 27% response rate.
  • The paper states that less than 20% of clinical trials are conducted in developing countries and only 1% of recently discovered drugs target tropical diseases.

Methods

  • Systematic review following PRISMA, searching PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, and WHO Global Health Library, plus grey literature sources including ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and Google Scholar.
  • Eligibility: empirical, peer-reviewed studies published in English between 1995 and October 2015 that reported barriers/challenges for conducting clinical trials in developing countries; commentaries, editorials, and literature reviews were excluded.
  • Two reviewers independently screened, appraised quality using adapted Newcastle-Ottawa criteria for quantitative studies and Kuper criteria for qualitative studies, and synthesized findings using thematic analysis/synthesis.

Limitations

  • Stated: most developing countries were hardly represented; barriers may vary by context, so findings may not reflect any specific country; limited articles meant similarities and differences among developing countries were not examined; most included studies were qualitative with small samples and narrow participant diversity; non-English papers were excluded because translation was not feasible.
  • Evident: only 10 studies (15 papers) met inclusion criteria, and the authors did not conduct a meta-synthesis because of diverse settings and methodological approaches.
  • Evident: quality assessment found one low-quality quantitative study with high risk of selection bias and low response rate, and one qualitative study/proposal did not describe key qualitative aspects such as approach, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/s12939-018-0748-6

Cites

78 of 78 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

Fig. 1 PRISMA 2009 flow diagram for study selection
Fig. 1 PRISMA 2009 flow diagram for study selectionCC BY · PubMed Central

Verification

Claims the paper makes

71 Not checked yet · 13 Own result · 10 Own method · 10 Own interpretation · 9 No basis given · 1 Supported so far

Verify all 171 references — free account
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 37
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 43
66 of 66
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Scarce resources in developing countries are nearly all spent on program implementation, and allocating funds for research is almost out of the equation in most development plans.

    “Scarce resources in developing countries are nearly all spent on program implementation, and allocating funds for research is almost out of the equation in most development plans.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Medical schools and teaching hospitals in LMIC have poorly prepared their graduates to conduct scientific trials and clinical research.

    “Medical schools and teaching hospitals in LMIC have poorly prepared their graduates to conduct scientific trials and clinical research.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most clinicians around the world have competing priorities that require them to engage in caring for patients.

    “It is well known that most clinicians around the world have competing priorities that require them to engaging on caring for patients.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Physicians in the developing world are already overstretched with responsibilities of patient care.

    “Physicians in the developing world are already overstretched with responsibilities of patient care.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The availability of large numbers of tertiary qualified workers and the relatively low salary base in developing countries reduces the cost of running clinical trials.

    “Moreover, the availability of large numbers of tertiary qualified workers and the relatively low salary base in these countries reduces the cost of running clinical trials.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    International clinical trials often cost less than they do in the US.

    “One reason for outsourcing is that international clinical trials often cost less than they do in the US.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There are several inter-country differences in culture, socioeconomic and political contexts.

    “There are several inter-country differences in culture, socioeconomic and political contexts”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    India is one of the world’s fastest-growing clinical research destinations.

    “For example, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing clinical research destinations.”
8 of 8

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 80 references

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. United Nations. World population prospect. 2015.
  2. Sulthan N. Perception of clinical research among clinical investigators in Saudi Arabia. Asian J. Pharm. Clin. Res. 2015;8:243–6.
  3. Jain R, Stern D. Effective utilisation of India for global clinical trials. J. Clin. Stud. 2011;3:30–64.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 406

Metadata

Authors
Alemayehu, C., Mitchell, G., & Nikles, J.
Affiliations
The University of Queensland (AU)
Corresponding author
Alemayehu, Chalachew
Venue
International Journal for Equity in Health
Published
2018-03-22
Volume
17
Issue
1
Pages
37-37
ISSN
1475-9276 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2799784802
Cited by
406
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 65 · 2025: 74 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 62 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 15
FWCI
3.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • International Journal for Equity in Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
University of Queensland
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health and Surgery
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health and Medical Research Impacts
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
Keywords
barriers to clinical trials, developing countries, investigator-initiated trials, research capacity, research environment, health disparities, underrepresentation in clinical trials, operational barriers, competing demands
MeSH terms
Attitude to Health, Clinical Trials as Topic, Communication Barriers, Developing Countries, Humans, Research Support as Topic

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-10, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-10 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review