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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Nov. 18

THE President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has highlighted the need for subjecting ayurveda to vigorous research and integrating the same with biotechnology for the purpose of invention of newer drugs.

Dr Kalam, who is on a visit to the State, observed this while delivering his address after dedicating to the nation the new premises of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), an autonomous institution under the Kerala State Committee for Science, Technology and Environment (STEC). According to Dr Kalam, the rich biodiversity that the country was endowed with needed fuller exploitation for the benefit of the people.

The President called for the need to give up the practice of marketing new drug molecules. Instead, the focus should be on continued effort aimed at converting these molecules into drugs.

Dr Kalam regretted that modern biotechnologists did not hold indigenous knowledge on traditional medicine in high esteem.

He quoted the instance of a Chennai-based researcher, who had invented a new drug by integrating the best of traditional vaidya and modern biotechnology.

The 15 to 20 years needed for development of a new drug currently could be halved if only researchers took liberal recourse to traditional knowledge.

Rather than try marketing of herbal extracts, researchers here should find ways of developing drugs out of them. The President urged them to give themselves a span of five years for coming out with positive results on this front.

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