India improves access to low cost medicines

Mohali, Oct 13 (UNI) India has become a leading international player in generic medicines and has been able to considerably improve access to low cost medicines for the common people not only within India but in many developing countries.

This was stated by Mr Ashok Kumar, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, while inaugurating a two-week intensive course on 'Advanced Analytical Techniques: Basic Principles and Application for Quality Assessment of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals for Export', organised by National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), here.

This 13-day course is being sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan (SCAAP) programmes.

About 29 resource people drawn from the pharmaceutical industries, research laboratories, academia and regulatory agencies would deliver lectures and participate in the deliberations.

As many as 19 participants from countries like Sudan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Laos, Mauritius, Tanzania, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan were attending the workshop.

Mr Kumar said a number of western pharma companies had already made research and development collaborations with the Indian pharma companies in the field of new drug discovery.

This programme, he said, is meant to bring awareness among the officials of regulatory bodies in the developing countries about the prevailing standards of quality with respect to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), which would help in better understanding and appreciation of the systems.

Welcoming the participants, Prof P Rama Rao, Director, NIPER, thanked the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, for extending full support in organising such a big event at NIPER for the ninth time.

He informed that 220 personnels of regulatory and research organisations from 36 countries had been trained in the last eight programmes of such kind. He appealed to the participants to make the maximum use of the state-of-art-facilities of the institute during the workshop. He urged them to disseminate the learnings of the workshop to their nation.

Prof K K Bhutani, Head, Department of Natural Products, NIPER, also spoke during the function. Explaining the objective of the course, Prof A K Chakraborti, Head, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, NIPER and course coordinator, said this programme would provide an update on theoretical and practical aspects of the key issues related to ''quality'' of pharmaceuticals.

UNI VKJ JT KN1903