The Hindu : Front Page : Centre considering patenting Indian medicine

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 30, 2005

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Centre considering patenting Indian medicine

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The Union Department of Science and Technology will look at patenting, standardising procedures and quality control for alternative (Indian) medicine, Secretary of the Department, V.S. Ramamoorthy, has said.

"Alternative systems of medicine is definitely in the view of the DST, but we recognise that it is a mandate of the AYUSH [Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy], a wing of the Central Government," Mr. Ramamoorthy said. He was addressing a national workshop on the standardisation of traditional Indian medicine for global acceptability as per WHO guidelines.

Mr. Ramamoorthy said 40 years ago, traditional practitioners were seen as quacks. In the last two decades, the system had gained recognition. For some time, it was seen as the poor man's alternative and hence called alternative medicine.

Reverse pharmacology

Thanks to the global pharmaceutical industry, traditional systems had been brought to the forefront. Noting that health care was becoming unaffordable even in the U.S., he called for a strategy of adopting reverse pharmacology, which was different from the standard method of screening.

The five-day workshop was organised by the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (Deemed University) [SRMC & RI (DU)] in coordination with the Institute of Medical Science, Banaras Hindu University. The Technology Transfer Division (Drugs and Pharmaceutical), DST, sponsored the workshop.

SRMC & RI (DU) emeritus professor G.P. Dubey said it was the most modern model of medical research and hoped that in due course they would have a new department for Indian medicine.

D. Mathangi, assistant professor, said participants had acknowledged the proactive role of the DST and wanted it to create a dedicated website for traditional systems of medicine.

They called for quality manpower to make traditional medicine global.

A. Hannah Rachel Vasanthi, organising secretary, said a memorandum of understanding was signed between SRMC, DST and Rumi Herbals for research on poly herbal formulation for the management of diabetes.

S. Thanikachalam, chairman and director of the Cardiac Care Centre at the Deemed University said the three-year project involved a cost of Rs. 1.15 crores, with the DST providing Rs. 81 lakhs and the industry the remaining sum.

The institution offered the infrastructure.

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