India’s clinical research footprint continues to expand beyond traditional metro hubs, and IndiaTrialPulse tracks it. This edition covers multi-site clinical trial activity registered with the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI), highlighting the trends shaping India’s evolving research ecosystem for sponsors, CROs, and clinical operations teams.
Have a look at the August 2026 edition.
August In Clinical Trial Numbers
August saw 586 clinical trials registered, including 38 multi-site trials. Within that multi-site activity, 26 studies were India-only, and 12 were global, a split that continues to reflect strong domestic research momentum.
On the therapeutic front, Metabolic & Endocrinology led the landscape, followed by CNS/Neurology, Oncology, Immunology, and Cardiology. This spread mirrors India’s shifting disease burden and the widening set of priorities sponsors are bringing to the country.
Global Pharma and Indian Pharma remained the leading sponsor groups, with 17 and 12 trials respectively, underscoring that India continues to draw both multinational programs and homegrown research investment.
There was also a clear signal on study maturity: Phase 3 studies led the multi-site landscape, with 19 trials registered in that phase, pointing to a pipeline weighted toward later-stage, confirmatory research.
The Geography Keeps Shifting
Tier 2 cities accounted for 144 clinical sites, compared with 124 in Tier 1 cities, continuing a pattern that has held across recent editions.
It points to a sustained shift toward broader geographic participation: trials reaching beyond the established research centres, into cities that bring new investigators, new sites, and access to patient populations that were historically underrepresented. For sponsors and CROs planning site strategy, it’s a movement worth designing around rather than reacting to.
One Trend Worth Watching
Taken together, the August data reinforces a theme IndiaTrialPulse has surfaced consistently: Tier 2 cities are steadily growing in importance within India’s multi-site clinical research ecosystem.
As site participation extends beyond traditional research centres, the opportunity becomes significant to expand patient access and build a more geographically diverse trial network. And this is precisely the kind of movement IndiaTrialPulse is designed to track: not just how many trials are being registered, but where clinical research is moving, and what the data may be telling us.
How StriderDCT Support Your Clinical Trials
StriderDCT is an AI-native, full-spectrum clinical research organization advancing Digital Clinical Trials across India and beyond. From BA/BE studies to decentralized and hybrid delivery, we help sponsors and CROs run trials with less burden on sites and patients and help turn clinical data into the kind of intelligence teams can act on.
Stay connected for the next edition of IndiaTrialPulse and track the evolving pulse of clinical research in India.