Ancient Indian medicines to be patented in 5 foreign languages

2009-11-30 21:40:00

Medicinal formulations in the classical Indian texts of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha are being transcribed and then would be patented in five international languages, including German and Japanese, to prevent their misappropriation, the Lok Sabha was informed Monday.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Health and Family Affairs S. Gandhiselvan said: 'Medicinal formulations present in classical texts of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Tamil Languages are being transcribed in patent application in five international languages - English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese for sharing with International patent offices, including United States Patent Office and European Patent Office.'

About 6,000 to 7,000 plants are estimated to be in use in the Indian systems of medicines, the Lok Sabha was informed Monday.

He said according to a study conducted by the National Medicinal Plants Board through the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition, 960 medicinal plants are in use in trade.

The minister said the department of AYUSH - or the department of Ayurveda, Yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy under the ministry - has established the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library in collaboration with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in the ministry of science and technology to prevent the misappropriation of traditional knowledge by multinational companies.

Source: SifyNews

A shift in medical studies....!

HYDERABAD: With people switching over from traditional to alternative therapies, aspiring doctors too have changed track. Allopathy is no more the in-thing for wannabe doctors or so it seems if the rising popularity of Unani, Homeopathy and Ayurveda courses in Hyderabad is anything to go by.

Believe it or not, there are as many as 10 students vying for each seat for these courses now, while in the previous years many seats were left vacant. This year, officials of NTR University of Health Sciences say that all the 121 seats in the two Unani medical colleges are filled. Of the 211 seats for homeopathy (BHMS) 203 are filled and out of 220 seats for the Bachelor’s course in ayurveda, 205 are filled.

Though surprised, the officials are glad that such a shift has taken place. “The students are now interested in courses which will fetch them good earnings. The students who specialise in these medicines also look at them as an easy ticket to go abroad. Many know that one can earn big money with alternative therapies abroad,” N Venugopal, registrar, NTR University told ‘TOI’. While many of them have dollar dreams, there are also those who chose to stick to traditional medicine to cater to some people who still believe in the natural healing process.

“Unani is very much the most needed medicine in some parts of Hyderabad. The medicine requires knowledge in Urdu and not many people know to read and write the language now. One needs some kind of expertise to carry the tradition forward as it is in demand even now,” Venugopal said.

Students said that many of them opted for the course out of love for the subject. “I never wanted to go for an MBBS course. Unani was my first choice while my brother opted for homeopathy. There are many people who know that allopathic drugs do not give lasting solutions for diseases,’’ said Ahmed Fahad, a student of Nizamia Tibbi College. He said that he even went for coaching to clear BHUMCET to get into one of the colleges. Unlike the previous years, where there were hardly 200 students applying for the course, in 2009 admissions the number of applicants doubled.

According to others, there are more takers for alternative medicine as allopathy has failed to offer solutions for many new diseases. Besides, with various big brands in natural therapies joining the field, the career path has become very lucrative, say students.

Source: Times of India

I always used to say "the time is changing and it is the era of natural medicines/healing".... I am happy for Ayurveda.

Bravo Ayurveda !

Patent of Ayurvedic Medicines - PIB India Release

Monday, 03 August 2009
Lok Sabha

The Indian Patent Office has received a number of applications from Indian as well as foreign inventors and companies seeking patents in all fields of technologies, including possibly Ayurvedic medicines, which are published on the website of the Patent Office, namely, http://www.ipindia.nic.in/.

Patents are granted to inventors, including individuals and companies, for products and processes which meet the criteria of novelty, inventive step and industrial application under the sovereign prerogative of countries according to their respective laws which have territorial effect only, that is, they are effective only in the country of grant. Patents granted in other countries are not applicable in India and do not affect the Ayurvedic medical practitioners in India.
In order to protect traditional knowledge from being patented, provisions have been made in the Patents Act, 1970. As per section 3 (p) of the Act, an invention, which, in effect, is traditional knowledge or which is an aggregation or duplication of known properties of traditionally known component or components is not patentable. Sections 25 and 64 of the said Act, include anticipation of invention by available local knowledge, including oral knowledge, as one of the grounds for opposition as also for revocation.

The Government has undertaken the development of a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) database which includes codified knowledge of traditional medicine, including Ayurveda and Unani, in five international languages, namely, English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese to prevent patenting of inventions which are mere traditional knowledge.

This information was given by Shri Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India