Friday, April 11, 2008 Growth of medical tourism in Jordan By Clint Fabiosa & Andrew Ong I protect
MEDICAL tourist is a term referring to people who travel to other regions or countries in search of health care options.
According to recent reports, medical tourism represents two-thirds of total revenues in Jordan, a small landlocked country in the Middle East.
It was found out that with strong intellectual property enforcement in the region, clinical trials enhance physician and hospital skills and, in the process, further enhance economic growth in medical tourism for the country.
An October 2004 report titled, “Establishing Globally Competitive Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries in Jordan,” said that a recent survey of patients identified the medical expertise of physicians as the main reason medical tourists come to Jordan.
With this development, several companies came to Jordan to conduct medical trials and enter into co-marketing agreements with Jordanian companies. In 2001, Bristol-Myers Squibb initiated a three-year 5,000-patient cardiovascular risk factor study in Jordan. In 2004, several companies carried out 19 clinical trials in Jordan for various conditions, such as cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
