Siddha, Varma medical camp held

Siddha, Varma medical camp held



Sunday, Apr 24, 2011
 courtes:the hindu


VELLORE: As many as 284 persons were treated at a free Siddha and Varma medical camp, organised by Sooryodaya Aided Elementary School, Vellore District Siddha Medical Office and Welfare Trust, in connection with Siddhar Day at Sooryodaya Aided Elementary School in Gudiyatham recently.

G. Rajasekaran, former Additional Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, inaugurated the camp. S. Thillaivanan, Siddha and Varma medical expert, and Yamuna, Siddha Medical Officer, Government Siddha Hospital, treated the patients. Philip Bhaktha Prasanna, Correspondent of Sooryodaya Aided Elementary School, presided. P. Jennifer Philip, headmistress, welcomed the gathering.

India videographs 200 yoga postures to prevent patent piracy

India videographs 200 yoga postures to prevent patent piracy
   Wednesday, April 20, 2011 20:43
New Delhi: India has made available a database describing 1,300 yoga postures and videography of 200 popular among these as part of efforts to prevent patent pirates from exploiting it for commercial purposes. Scientists at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have scoured through 16 ancient texts, including Patanjali Yoga Sutra and decribed 1300 yoga postures, a senior official said.

These will be made available to international patent offices through the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), TKDL Director V.K. Gupta said here. He said as part of phase II, 20 more ancients texts would be referred and more yoga postures would be described and put up on the digital library.

"We are making available the 30-40 most popular yoga asanas in the open domain. The rest would be available only to patent offices," Gupta said.

In the United States alone, the patent authorities have issued more than 130 yoga-related patents, 150 copyrights and 2,300 trademarks related to the ancient practice. On Wednesday, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) entered into an agreement with TKDL that would grant it access to the rich resource on traditional knowledge. The 'Access Agreement' was signed by Gupta and Tomoki Sawai, Director, International Affairs Division of the JPO. India had earlier signed similar agreements with United States Patent & Trademark Office, European Patent Office, German Patent Office, Patent Office of Australia, Canada Patent Office (CIPO) and United Kingdom Trademark & Patent Office (UKPTO), during the last two years.

The agreement signed with EPO in particular has resulted into remarkable success in preventing bio-piracy of Indian traditional knowledge at EPO. The TKDL database includes 54 authoritative textbooks on Ayurvedic medicine, nearly 1,50,000 Ayurvedic, Unani and Siddha medicines.It is being used as a ready reckoner by patent examiners to compare patent applications with existing traditional knowledge.courtyest

 

India and Japan Sign TKDL Access Agreement

India and Japan Sign TKDL Access Agreement

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India signed the TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library) Access Agreement with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) here today. This TKDL Access Agreement would help prevent misappropriation of India’s traditional knowledge at JPO.  It also successfully concludes the arrangement of protection of India’s traditional knowledge with ‘trilateral offices’ like United States Patent & Trademark Office, European Patent Office and Japan Patent Office. This is considered significant as most of the international patent applications get filed at least in one of these trilateral offices. Rejection of a patent application at any one of these offices would facilitate its rejection at any other International Patent Office. TKDL Access Agreement has in-built safeguards on non-disclosure to protect India’s interest against any possible misuse. Under the agreement, the patent examiners at International Patent Offices can utilize TKDL for patent search and examination purpose only and cannot reveal the content to any third party unless it is necessary for citation purpose. Significant impact has already been realized at EPO, beginning July 2009, wherein TKDL team identified 224 patent applications at EPO which concern Indian systems of medicine and third party TKDL evidences filed at EPO. In two such cases, EPO has already set aside its earlier intention to grant patents after it received TKDL evidence.  In the other 33 cases, applicants themselves decided to withdraw their four-to-five year old applications on being confronted with TKDL evidence. It is expected that in the remaining cases also, either EPO would reject these applications or applicants themselves would withdraw their wrong claims/patent applications unless they are able to establish the novelty of their claims/applications.  A recent study carried out by TKDL expert team has revealed a sharp decline (44%) on filing of patent applications concerning Indian systems of medicine at EPO in particular on generic group concerning medicinal plant preparation. Normally, on an average, 80 such patent applications are being filed every year at EPO. About 25 get filed during October-December and 15-40 patents get granted yearly during this period.  In contrast, during October-December 2009 only 14 applications got filed and no wrong patent was granted Misappropriation and bio-piracy are the issues of great concern for 130 developing countries and this agenda is being pursued at multilateral forums such as Convention on Biological Diversity, TRIPs Council at World Trade Organization and at World Intellectual Property Organization.  However, so far there has been no consensus on ensuring protection of traditional knowledge.  It is for this reason, Mexico, only after more than 10 years of legal battle, was able to get the patent on Enola bean at USPTO cancelled in July 2009.  Similarly, cancellation on Monsonto Soybean patent happened in July 2007 at EPO but after 13 years of legal battle. India is the only country in the world which has set up an institutional mechanism (TKDL) and is able to prevent grant of wrong patents in only a few weeks through an e-mail and at zero cost, whereas other countries need to fight for 10-12 years and have to spend millions of US dollars to meet legal and other expenses even for opposing a single patent. TKDL, a collaborative project between CSIR and Department of AYUSH, is a maiden Indian effort to help prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge belonging to India at International Patent Offices. It  has scientifically converted and structured  the India’s traditional knowledge available in 148ancient books on Indian Systems of Medicine, into five international languages, namely, English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish (30 million A4 size pages), with the help of IT tools and a novel classification system, namely, Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC). Today, India through TKDL is capable of protecting about 2 lakh (0.226 million) medical formulations similar to those of neem and turmeric. On an average, it takes five to seven years for opposing a granted patent at international level which may cost Rs 1-3 crore (0.2-0.6 million US$). One could only imagine the cost of protecting 2 lakh (0.2 million US$) medicinal formulations in the absence of TKDL! The TKDL technology has created a unique mechanism for a Sanskrit sloka to be read in German/ Japanese/English/French/Spanish, by an examiner at EPO or any other International Patent Offices on a computer screen.  These unique international TKDL Access Agreements would have long-term implications on the protection of traditional knowledge and global intellectual property systems in view of the fact that in the past, patents have been granted at EPO and USPTO on the use of over 200 medicinal plants due to the lack of access to the documented knowledge in public domain. Also, at any point in time, 40-50 patent applications based on Indian traditional knowledge are awaiting grant of patent. Earlier India has signed such Agreement earlier with several other International Patent Offices, like United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), German Patent Office, Patent Office of Australia, Canada Patent Office (CIPO) and United Kingdom Trademark & Patent Office (UKPTO), during the last two years. The agreement signed with EPO in particular has resulted into remarkable success in preventing bio-piracy of Indian traditional knowledge at EPO. courtes: PTI

UIPS team from PU glitters at Pharmacopeia

UIPS team from PU glitters at Pharmacopeia

Posted: Mon Apr 18 2011, 01:15 hrs
Chandigarh:
COURTESY: THe Indian express.com
Making another mark in the pharmaceutical industry, the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) of Panjab University (PU), has made its presence in the Indian Pharmacopeia — the sole authority for all prescriptions and over-the-drug-counter medicines and other health products sold in the country.
Under the project awarded by the Department of AYUSH under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 25 standard operating procedures (SOPs) for ayurvedic drugs prepared by a team of professors and students had been accepted and published in this “medical legal document”.



For more than five years, Dr Vashisht Karan and Dr Maninder Karan — who have specialisations in medicinal plants — along with a team of research scholars, have been working on the project that was awarded to the department in 2005. With an estimated initial project cost of Rs 30 lakh, the team started working on the SOPs for common ayurvedic products. “Once approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, these procedures went sent for publication in Pharmacopeia. Already, 16 single plant monograph (neem, amaltas, cucumber seeds and others) have been published in Pharmacopeia. These are a sort of quality standards or holograms for ayurvedic products that are followed in the country,” said Karan.

Apart from the single plant monograph, the team has also contributed to SOPs of polyherbal formulations. In this category, while nine have already been published in Pharmacopeia, five are in the final acceptance stage. Another 11 are in the pipeline.

“This is an ongoing project, as work is being awarded in stages. As the department has the expertise, it is expecting to receive SOP formulations of more plants very soon. It is an effort of the university to involve as many research scholars as possible so that they get field experience,” said Karan.

Sidha units in dilemma with few testing labs and high charges for validating their products

Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
Monday, April 11, 2011, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

 

Manufacturers of Siddha medicines in Tamil Nadu are facing major hardships in conducting proper validation tests for their products as there is very few government laboratories for doing the tests  and validation of ISM drugs. The high rates charged by the private labs are not affordable for most of the SSI units for conducting all the necessary tests.

Apart from this, lack of trained personnel is a hurdle faced by the existing government lab and the private labs, according to Dr P Jayaprakash Narayanan, chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee, Siddha.

He said that  as per pharmacopoeia, different tests are to be conducted for different medicines like choornam, lehyam, sindhooram, bhasmam etc. Quality test for particle size, elemental composition, test for heavy metal contents are charged heavily by the private labs. Rs.3000 is charged for each sample and every batch requires testing which becomes expensive for the manufacturers. These high charges also push up the prices of the products.

“When Tamil Nadu has a universal acclaim for its traditional Siddha medicines, the state government is not adequately supporting it by not providing infrastructure facilities and technical assistance to up-bring and promote the Siddha healing system. Either the government should upgrade the existing lab at Anna Nagar into the status of a modern testing laboratory with more trained staff, or establish one or two labs in other parts of the state. The shortage of drug testing labs is the best example of the government apathy”, the Siddha expert said.

“I am not sure that all the Siddha drugs available in the market have undergone all the validation tests, or wholly or partly tested. There are more than 900 licensees and 200 active manufacturers in Tamil Nadu. About 63 units have GMP facilities. The government has to provide all the required technical facilities for these manufacturing units ”, he added.

Dr T Thirunarayanan, the secretary of Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research’ said Ayush department has sanctioned a traditional cluster project at a cost of Rs.16 crore for the state. But those who are responsible to bring it up are delaying it after accepting a major part of the allotment. He invited the government’s immediate attention in the matter for the sake of the Siddha manufacturers of the state. He said if the cluster is made operational, the poor manufacturers of the state can avail all the testing facilities to certify and validate their products. Among other things, he emphasized the need to upgrade the state controlled lab at Annanagar which is currently conducting tests for TAMPCOL only, the state unit of ISM products.

“Labs are necessary for testing drugs of Indian systems to ensure the production of quality drugs and also to validate them to encourage acceptance. The central laboratory, Captain Srinivasa Murthy Research Institute for Drug Standardization for Ayurveda and Siddha, located at the ISM directorate premises is doing tests for private manufacturers, but it has very limited facilities and results are often delayed”, he told Pharmabiz.

Tamil Nadu has two government Siddha medical colleges and five private colleges. PG courses are conducted only in government colleges which located at Palayamcottai  and in Chennai. Private medical colleges are conducting only degree courses. Either of these government or private colleges has a separate testing laboratory for drug testing, Dr Thiruanarayanan, the former lecturer at the Chennai Siddha College said.

  I CMR sets up project review panel to monitor ongoing projects, develops system for fast-track approvals

Joseph Alexander, New Delhi
Monday, April 11, 2011, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has set up a project review committee to monitor all the ongoing projects funded by it and also developed an electronic tracking system for ensuring fast track approvals and for monitoring of extramural projects.

The Council was taking several steps to streamline the process of approvals and monitoring of all projects. The review committee would meet in every 3-4 months and assess the progress with regard to the process of approval. It would also make sure that approval as well as the projects would be done within the stipulated time, sources said.

A recent meeting of the review committee took stock of as many as 48 projects being funded by ICMR in the traditional medicine. “Successful micro-propagation has been taken up for Bijasal (Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb), an endangered medicinal leguminous tree whose bark is used as a potent anti-diabetic medicine so that enough wood is available for medicinal purpose and the species does not become extinct. Monograph of medicinal plants having various therapeutic values at Ramgarh area of Rajasthan has been prepared,” according to the review done.

Three medicinal plants (Ammania baccifera, Annona squamosa and Lycopersicon esculentum) showed good antioxidant activity and anti-proliferation activity in cancer cell lines. Leaves and testa of Anacardium occidentale (cashew) have been studied for anti-diabetic activities of their phyto-constituents by various in vitro and in vivoparameters. Catechin, a polyphenol which can be used as a nutraceutical has been successfully obtained.  Fruit of plant Withania coagulus (Doda Paneer) had shown glucose lowering effect in animals, according to the review.

Under the Golden Triangle Partnership, integrated protocols for conducting clinical trials of seven diseases (Benign Prostate Hypertrophy, Osteoporosis, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, HIV/AIDS, Anxiety Neurosis, and Oligospermia) were finalised. The clinical trials on formulations made available by the Department of AYUSH will be undertaken on the basis of these protocols.

As part of the collaboration between ICMR and the National Innovation Foundation, five herbal practices have been selected for the validation.  Extramural research projects have been sanctioned on anti-hepatotoxic activity of Abelmoschus esculentus and Datura metel used by the herbal healers, anti diabetic activity of Convolvulus arvensis and Nicotiana tabacum used by herbal healers, and evolution of anti-typhoid activity of Shorea robusta L., an ethno-medicine of the Kaatabhai Tribes of Maharashtra, the review panel was told.

 

Uttarakhand to set up 13 Ayush Grams

25th post
Uttarakhand to set up 13 Ayush Grams

Dehra Dun, April 11, 2011 The Hindu.

Bhowali sanatorium in Nainital district of Uttarakhand, where Kamala Nehru was admitted during her last days, is all set to become the first Ayush Gram comprising a hospital, a wellness centre, a hotel and a herbal garden.

Under a new project initiated by the Uttarakhand Government, all the 13 districts of the State will have one Ayush Gram each.

The government has provided a total of 10 acres of the sanatorium's land for the purpose of developing Ayush Gram, a dream project of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

An Ayush Gram comprises five features — Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.

MoU signed

Kolkata-based Emami group, which is enhancing its presence in the ayurvedic sector, has signed an MoU with the State Government for setting up the Ayush Gram at Bhowali in Kumaon region under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

The MoU came after the company won the contract for Ayush Gram through open bidding route. Emami, which has formed a consortium with a Rishikesh-based ashram and a hotel company, would develop the 358-bed sanatorium, established in 1912.

The sanatorium is virtually lying closed as there is only one doctor.

The herbal garden, which would be set up at 1200 sq metre area, will also have a specialised research centre to focus on the local herbs and medicinal plants.

In the herbal garden, there will be a provision for training and skill development facilities for local people in order to create new employment and business opportunities.

According to government sources, a minimum investment of Rs. 50 crore is proposed in each ayush project with government already identifying land at Champawat and Pithoragarh districts. But in the rest of the 10 districts, the government has been unable to identify land for this purpose.

“We are trying our best to identify lands in the remaining districts,” said a government official.

During the past few months, the Chief Minister, who has been closely monitoring various developmental projects, has told the concerned officials to search for land on top priority basis. - PTI

Pondicherry gets independent Drug Control Dept from April 1, P Rajkumar appointed DC

The first Drugs Control Department of Pondicherry came into existence on April 1 with P Rajkumar as the Drugs Controller (HoD). An official Gazette notification in this regard was made a few days ago.

The cabinet decision in respect of the formation of a separate drugs control department was taken in the cabinet meeting held on December 29, 2010, and subsequently it was approved by the governor in the first week of January this year.

It was in April last year that the health ministry of the Pondicherry government took the decision to form a separate department for drugs regulation after bifurcating the Food & Drugs Control Administration. Following it, the health minister of the state, E Valsaraj made a statement in the assembly that an independent department could help revamp and streamline the functions of the drug control administration effectively. Soon steps for the establishment of a new administration were taken and an official from pharmacy section of the FDA was appointed as the controlling authority.

The drugs controller said since his office has now got independent charge, from now on he will report directly to the health secretary. So far the department was under the control of the Director of Health Services.

Till 1989, doctors from medical services were handling the drugs control administration. After the amendment of Drugs & Cosmetics Act in 1989, the post of a controlling authority was not notified in the union territory and the charge was being handled either by the commissioner or by the additional commissioners. To fill this vacuum, in July 2010, the government made the present drugs controller as the controlling authority without mentioning the term ‘drugs controller’, but provided the statutory powers for controlling the entire department. Prior to this appointment, Rajkumar was acting as the state licensing authority.

According to him, the government has sanctioned four more posts of drug inspectors and one post of assistant drug controller. All these appointments will be made soon after the election. Currently the posts of drug inspectors are four, out of which one post in the head office is lying vacant. Two ADC offices will be functioning in Pondicherry from June and one each from Karakkal and Mahe. Proposal for an independent analytical laboratory is also under the consideration of the government.

From 1964, the food and drug control administration was functioning under one Director with separate staff and facilities using same offices in the four regions of the union territory. Even though the bifurcation has been effected already, the office of the drug control department will be functioning in the same premises of the directorate of health services, Rajkumar told Pharmabiz.

CCIM notifies minimum standards for ASU colleges wanting to get conditional permission

CCIM notifies minimum standards for ASU colleges wanting to get conditional permission
 
Suja Nair Shirodkar, Mumbai, Wednesday, April 06, 2011, 08:00 Hrs [IST]

courtesy : Pharmabiz.com


The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), a body under the Department of Ayush recently notified minimum standard norms for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani (ASU) colleges wanting to get conditional permission for the academic session 2011-12.

Only those colleges that follow these norms while forwarding the cases to the Department for conditional permission under section 13C and 13A of the IMCC Act, 1970 for the academic session 2011-12 shall be given permission to commence.

Notifying requirements for the teaching and non teaching staff for Post Graduate (PG) ASU colleges it states that all Ayurveda and Siddha colleges are required to be recommended on the basis of provisions notified in the PG regulations for Ayurveda entitled ‘The Indian Medicine Central Council (Postgraduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2005’, except for the two modifications which are separately being notified.

Giving information on the same it says, “The students teachers ratio of 1:3 shall be allowed instead of 1:2 in case of professor for PG students to be admitted per year. And minimum annual average bed occupancy in the IPD of the hospital shall be at least 50 per cent instead of 60 per cent.”

As per the notification, the minimum standard requirements needed for the teaching staff for the Under Graduate (UG) course is at least 90 per cent of the total requisite teaching staff as per the CCIM’s draft norms with no minimum requirement of teachers from modern faculty and 50 per cent higher faculty which includes professor and reader of the total required higher faculty staff as per the CCIM’s draft norms. It also stresses that at any given time there should be availability of at least one teacher in each Department.

Stating the parameters for the number of beds for teaching hospitals for UG ASU colleges notification states, “For hospitals of Ayurveda and Siddha colleges, student bed ratio must be 1:2 for a minimum 100 bedded hospital. Whereas for hospitals of Unani colleges the student bed ratio should be 1:1, though, minimum 50 bedded hospital is required in all.”

Whereas for PG course in Ayurveda and Siddha minimum 150 beds are required including 50 beds for 10 PG seats in clinical subjects with UG intake capacity of 50 students. However, number of beds in hospital for PG seats in clinical subjects will be maintained in 1:5 student bed ratio in addition to beds required for UG seats.

For the Unani PG courses minimum 75 beds are required including 25 beds for five PG seats in clinical subjects with UG intake capacity of 50 students. However, total number of beds in hospital for PG seats in clinical subjects will be maintained in 1:5 student-bed ratio in addition to beds required for UG seats.

The notification specifies that for the OPD attendance of teaching hospital for UG and PG course in ASU colleges it is necessary that the daily average OPD attendance of the OPDs will be required on an average 100 patients per day during 1st January 2010 to 31st December, 2010.

Whereas the bed occupancy in IPD of teaching hospital for UG ASU colleges should be minimum 40 per cent bed occupancy during 1st January 2010 to 31st December, 2010. Whereas for the PG there should be minimum 50 per cent bed occupancy during period from 1st January, 2010 to 31st December, 2010.

All the provisions both measurable and non measurable as contained in the Indian Medicine Central Council (Postgraduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2005 shall be examined by CCIM before sending their recommendation. At the same time all Unani colleges are required to be recommended on the basis of provisions as is notified in the PG regulations for Unani entitled ‘The Indian Medicine Central Council (Postgraduate Unani Education) Regulations, 2007’.

Consultative committee lauds Health Ministry’s progress in AYUSH sector

Consultative committee lauds Health Ministry’s progress in AYUSH sector

courtesy: the indian news

Cutting across party lines, a Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today lauded the progress made by the Department of AYUSH in the last sixteen years.

The meeting which was chaired by Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad noted that the Department of AYUSH has been making significant strides in providing an enabling environment to develop these systems with its infrastructure of national institutes, research councils, pharmacopoeial laboratories, the Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited and also the National Medicinal Plants Board.

Azad highlighted the successful strategy of mainstreaming of AYUSH systems under the National Rural Health Mission. He also elaborated on the efforts made by the department towards ensuring quality control of drugs.

Azad, however pointed out the acute shortage of doctors in rural areas and sought the views of members in mitigating the situation by utilizing the AYUSH doctors to fill the felt need at grass root levels.

Secretary, Department of AYUSH, Anil Kumar, drew the attention of members to the new initiatives taken in the Eleventh Plan, particularly the scheme on acquisition cataloguing, digitization and publication of text book and manuscripts; projects on local health tradition; scheme on AYUSH clusters and public health initiatives.

Committee members shared the concern of the department over some key issues like low capacity reflected in vacancies; pending utilisation certificates from states; weak drug enforcement machinery; collaborative research and building quality - drugs, therapies, hospitals, laboratories, teaching colleges.

They requested Azad to ensure employment and utilization of trained manpower and suggested that AYUSH services should be more visible at the grass root level so that benefits of progress made by the department reach the people. (ANI)

Planning Commission wants corrective measures as Ayush units go slow on GMP

Planning Commission wants corrective measures as Ayush units go slow on GMP
Joseph Alexander, New Delhi

courtesy : pharmabiz.com

With the utilisation of funds for quality control of Ayush drugs falling much below the expectations and manufacturing units till going lacklustre about getting GMP compliant, the Planning Commission has now asked the Ayush Department to initiative corrective measures and push the units to ensure quality of drugs.


The move comes after the Planning Commission held an assessment of the fund utilisation so far in the current Five Year Plan and the number of GMP compliant units in the country. The gaps on both counts are significant as the Ayush industry in the country is under pressure to step up quality of drugs in view of the sterner norms being implemented in European Union and other parts of the world.


According to the assessment done by the Planning Commission, out of total 9837 registered units in the Ayush sector, only 4663 units are GMP complying units. Ratio of GMP compliant /non-GMP compliant units is very unsatisfactory with the maximum gap noticed in States like Assam, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Punjab, the Plan Panel viewed. As many as 2336 legal notices have been issued/licenses cancelled so far on various grounds including the lack of GMP certification.


At the same time, it was also noted that the Ayush Department could not effectively utilise the funds allocated for improving quality control systems. Against an Eleventh Plan outlay of Rs.225 crore, funds amounting to only Rs.45 crore could be allocated during the first three years of the plan period and expenditure reported was only Rs.27 crore so far.


This has prompted the Planning Commission to ask the Department for corrective measures and liberalise the Drug Quality Control Scheme which put in place to provide financial assistance to establish State Drug Testing Laboratories. Over the years, 29 State Drug Testing Laboratories at a cost of Rs.1.5 crore per lab and 46 State Pharmacies have been set up and upgraded with Rs.2 crore per pharmacy.


The scheme also had components of strengthening of the State enforcement mechanism, upgrading the in-house testing facilities of manufacturing units and assisting manufacturing units desirous of obtaining higher GMP like EU and WHO-GMP. In spite of including these changes, the fund could not be utilised well, the Planning Commission has observed.
 

Ayush DTAB fails to hold statutory quarterly meeting for one year: TN member

Ayush DTAB fails to hold statutory quarterly meeting for one year: TN member
Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 08:00 Hrs [IST]
courtesy : pharmabiz.com

Although the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani is expected to meet once in three months, not a single meeting was convened by the Board for the last one year according to one committee member from Tamil Nadu.

Demanding calling of an immediate meeting of the DTAB, the member has written to the Secretary of Ayush raising some critical problems faced by the industry to be discussed in the meeting. The committee is supposed to discuss various issues of the industry and those of the consumers to find out immediate solutions.

The member, Dr P Jayaprakash Narayan, whose expertise is used by various scientific and technical committees of Ayush department, said in his letter that the Board has to meet regularly, or else its very purpose will not be served. He also objected to the practice of issuing orders on crucial issues without consulting and discussing in the Board.

While speaking to Pharmabiz he said that government is issuing orders arbitrarily on issues like labelling, exports, drug safety, Ayush guidelines etc. These have to be discussed in the DTAB which is constituted for advising and amendment of rules. This committee is responsible for the implementation of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and it is the highest statutory body under Ayush.

Because of the delay in holding the meeting, he said, the second edition of the Formulary for Siddha medicines could not be brought out. The formulary has to be recognized and published on the advice of DTAB. The first volume of the formulary is not available anywhere now. Likewise, the compilation of the second edition of the Siddha Pharmacopoeia has been completed, but that also is now in the cold storage for want of approval of the committee. Dr Jayaprakash Narayan has also forwarded the copy of his letter to the Director General of Health Services, who is the chairman of the DTAB.

Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, who is also the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Siddha (CCRAS), said DTAB can do a lot for the development of Siddha system in Tamil Nadu, but the bureaucrats in Delhi are not interested to take up any step towards it. According to him the state department has got some misunderstanding about Ayush rules that forced it to restrain issuance of licences to proprietary medicines. In Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, if a researcher submits certificates of two doctors proving the efficacy and safety of a proprietary drug, the department will approve that drug. But the Tamil Nadu ISM department is conservative in that matter where in the involvement of DTAB can solve the problem, he said.

The expert member said he will raise the problem of shortage of drug testing laboratories for Siddha in the coming DTAB meeting.

Marrying the medicines of the world

Marrying the medicines of the world

Subir Roy / Bangalore April 1, 2011, 0:38 IST

A new institute, with help from the Tatas, will integrate ayurveda with modern medicine to take medical pluralism forward.Earlier this month, something unusual happened in India’s high-tech city of Bangalore. Tradition and modernity met in harmony and with a desire to look forward, not back. Ratan Tata, a Parsi, belonging to the most anglicised among Indian communities, and head of a multi-billion-dollar business empire that draws its life blood from knowledge born out of science, inaugurated a research centre that had ‘ayurveda’ as part of its tag line.

The Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (I-AIM), with a 100-bed hospital, funded by Tata Trust, will try to create a new space for medical pluralism by integrating modern allopathy with the traditional systems of medicine recognised in India — ayurveda, siddha, unani, homeopathy and Tibetan medicine (Swa-rig-pa).
It will cover the entire range of activities that a public research hospital does — treat patients, conduct research, train medicos and carry out an outreach programme that will seek to rope in large numbers of families in promoting preventive public health in a new cost-effective way, using traditional practices.

At the inauguration, Tata referred to the general perception that traditional medicine belonged to the world of witch doctors and acknowledged that most were unaware of the rich tradition of Indian ayurvedic medicine. He then went on to express the hope that the next 20 years would be able to pay a tribute to the scientists working at the center for their role in putting “India on the international map in an area that is rich in Indian tradition”.

The need that the centre is trying to address is the dilemma being felt by modern medical science. The patent pipeline — particularly for blockbuster drugs that help fund future research — is drying up. That means, new powerful cures are not being discovered. But simultaneously there seems to be no breakthrough for conditions like cancer, diabetes or even the common cold. So existing knowledge has, obviously, reached a plateau.

The boundaries of knowledge, all that is acceptable to the keepers of received wisdom, have to be necessarily redrawn — something that Darshan Shankar, the founding spirit behind the whole exercise, has been doing for nearly three decades. In the early eighties he discovered a till-then unknown tribal health tradition among the Thakurs in coastal Maharashtra. This led to the setting up of NGOs, medical colleges and research centres that were covered under the rubric of Lok Swasthya Parampara Sambvardhan Samiti.

Then a chance meeting between Darshan Shankar and Sam Pitroda, the telecom icon and knowledge leader, changed the future of the former’s work. Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) was born to take the work of the Samiti forward.

FRLHT has since 1993 done signal work in securing and safeguarding the knowledge and practices of India’s traditional systems of medicine. Known sources of information, like manuscripts, have been secured and the knowledge of medicinal plants stored and digitised.The country’s entire stock of such plants has been housed in 87 forest gene banks and a herbarium has collected 70 per cent of the medicinal plants used by Indian systems. Some of the most endangered plants are being preserved on LRLHT’s campus. Plus, systematic interaction has been initiated with groups of traditional healers, so that their practices do not die out.

Having so secured the store of knowledge inherited from the past, Darshan Shankar now wishes to use it and take it forward with the new centre. At the hospital, modern diagnostic tools, plus parallel ayurvedic systems, will measure medical conditions before, during and after treatment. But the treatment itself will be 100 per cent based on ayurveda and yoga.

Shankar says that “health seeking behavior shows no single medical system has all the answers. Complementary and alternative systems of medicine are being sought out and this is resulting in a move towards integrative healthcare and medical pluralism.”

“At I-AIM we want to create enormous new human resources to spread this new integrative science, this medical pluralism. We will try to put to use the conservation, recording and validation that we have done so far. We want to work with folk healers and households, have a focus on health education for millions as part of a preventive programme and do it by using modern dissemination tools.”

What additionality can ayurveda bring? Darshan Shankar explains that science does not draw a distinction between the brain and the mind. Thinking is seen as a neural phenomenon. In yoga and ayurveda, the mind is independent of the brain, the mind’s impact can be reflected in the brain. So this is not a physical or biological process but a metaphysical one. “In science, we use the senses to perceive, measure and record. It is not possible to read a thought through the senses. But the shastras use the mind to do so.”

He explains further that “science breaks up things” in order to study them, ayurveda studies the whole. “The relation between the whole and the part is at the root of the trans-disciplinary research that we will be undertaking.”

He is heartened by the fact that hardcore practitioners of modern medical science are already acknowledging the existence of traditional systems of knowledge. The Apollo group, for example, wants to introduce integrative healthcare in its hospitals. As the world moves towards “medical pluralism”, there is an enormous opportunity for India, which has well-developed traditional systems to draw upon.