From rxpgnews.com

India
Research and Drug Development to be made Integral in India
By Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India
Nov 12, 2005, 20:37

Research and Drug Development in the AYUSH Sector has to be made an integral part the manufacturers� activities and they should be mede to reckon with the challenges of the new patent regime. This was disclosed by the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss in Hyderabad today at the inauguration of AROGYA 2005. The Minister pointed out that this is necessary to beat the multi-nationals from patenting our traditional knowledge as well as pre-empt their activity of selling our own Ayush drugs to us through repackaging. He urged the AYUSH manufacturers to take advantage of our traditional knowledge digital library, to check such malpractices.

He said the Department of AYUSH has already launched a Golden Triangle Research Programme in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for the validation of traditional medicines and development of new Ayurvedic,Unani and Siddha drugs.

To remain globally competitive, the Minister said that good manufacturing practices have been made mandatory and the labeling provisions revised. The State licensing Authorities are being supported for strengthening their enforcement mechanism and the State pharmacies and drug testing laboratories provided financial assistance for augmenting their quality control and laboratory testing facilities. He also pointed out that trust has been given to complete the pharmacopoeial work within a specified time frame. The manufacturers of AYUSH drugs have also been directed to undertake content analysis for safety as well as toxicity studies at accredited laboratories, to generate safety data of their products and maintain quality control.

The AROGYA 2005 fair was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr.Y.S.Rajashekhara Reddy. The first regional AROGYA was held at Chennai in January this year. The highlights at the Hyderabad AROGYA include yoga demonstrations, free health check-ups, display and sale of AYUSH drugs as well as medicinal plants.

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