Sunday, October 25, 2015

BGR-34 Anti-Dibetic by CSIR

Scientifically validated Rs 5 anti-diabetes herbal drug launched by CSIR
Neha Shukla,TNN | Oct 26, 2015, 01.58 AM IST (Times of India)

LUCKNOW: A scientifically validated anti-diabetes herbal drug, named 'BGR-34', was launched by a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) lab in Lucknow on Sunday. A combination of natural extracts from plants, the drug is based on Ayurveda and has no side effects. The drug is for management of type-II diabetes mellitus.

The drug has been jointly developed by two CSIR laboratories, National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (CIMAP). It was launched on the 62nd annual day of the NBRI for commercial manufacturing and marketing by M/s Aimil Pharamaceuticals Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.

"The drug has extracts from four plants mentioned in Ayurveda and that makes it safe," said Dr AKS Rawat, senior principal scientist, NBRI. It has been tested on animals and scientific study has found it safe and effective, with clinical trials showing 67% success.

The drug boosts immune system, works as antioxidant and checks free radicals. Though there are other anti-diabetes herbal drugs in the market, 'BGR-34' has been validated scientifically.

The drug will help maintain normal blood glucose levels, reduce chances of complications due to persistent high blood glucose levels and impart a good quality life to patients with high blood sugar levels.

The formulation was launched earlier by the Vice-President Hamid Ansari in February last year at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, but on Sunday, the product was launched commercially.

"We will manufacture it now and it will be available in market shortly, may be in the next 15 days," said V S Kapoor, marketing head of Aimil Pharmaceuticals for UP and Delhi. It will be available in the form of tablets and may cost Rs 500 for 100 tablets.



Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The Calcutta Unani Medical College

Calcutta Unani College staff protest against govt inaction in taking over, salary delay
By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,

Kolkata: The staff at Calcutta Unani Medical College and Hospital face an uncertain future, but they are not sure who to blame for it.

They have been sitting on an indefinite strike since September 3 as they attempt to save Eastern India’s only Unani medical college. Their grievances are aimed largely at the lack of interest on the part of the state government to take over the college despite passing a Bill in the West Bengal Assembly in 2010 which allowed the same. Frustrated by the lack of progress in this regard, 300 people, all members of the college staff, participated in a rally on October 15, Wednesday. The protestors demanded West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to interfere in the matter and implement the Bill passed during the time of
the Left Front.
The college was established in 1994 and run by the All India Tibbi Conference’s West Bengal unit, a non-trading corporation comprising of Unani doctors with philanthropic mission to save and spread awareness of the Unani System of medicine in West Bengal. Muhammad Ayub, Principal, Calcutta Unani Medical College & Hospital, said, “Owing to the fact that there is only one institute of its kind, the college is a godsend opportunity for the meritorious students who desire to study Unani Medicine in this state along with hundreds of patients particularly belonging to the under privileged are benefited through treatment with medicine on a normal charge.”

But the problems of the college are largely-financial, and hence, the urge by the staff to the government, asking them to take over.

It was due to lack of finance that the college, which currently offers the course Kamil-e-Tib-o-Jarahat (BUMS) and offers 40 seats, was unable to start post-graduate courses of Unani Medicine, or even recruit teachers. Ayub added that while there was a yearly grant from the government, it was not sufficient for the purpose of meeting expenditure of development works and payment of salary of teaching and non-teaching staff of the institution. This explains why currently, the staff has not been received salary for three months. Members of the staff added that they were now finding it increasingly difficult to run their homes and that their own children were facing issues in schools due to non-payment of school fees.
Dr Hena Tarique, Department of Pathology, said Unani colleges are controlled by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Department of AYUSH, Government of India, which sets standards for running the college and performs yearly inspection for the allowing permission of new admissions. If college fails in fulfilling the criteria, the permission is not granted.

Owing to financial constraints and in order to save the college, the college's governing body had requested the Government to take over the college and hospital, she added.

(Photo: Sanjoy Purkait For TwoCircles.net)

Monday, October 19, 2015

siddha 22 project 2015

Siddha research council gets funds for 22 projects (The Hindu)
Updated: October 19, 2015 05:42 IST

duration of project 1-3 yrs

The Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) has received funding from the Ministry of AYUSH to take up 22 research projects. This includes funds for clinical trials of drugs for osteoarthritis, fibroid uterus, urolithiasis and infertility.

R. S. Ramaswamy , director general of CCRS, Ministry of AYUSH, during his recent visit to Vellore, said 22 research projects were approved last year and CCRS had received the funding to begin work a few months ago.

“The duration of the projects is one to three years. This includes clinical trials for drugs to treat osteoarthritis, fibroid uterus, urolithiasis, sinusitis and infertility. We had completed the animal study for some of the projects,” he told The Hindu.


Units in CCRS

CCRS has five units – Siddha Central Research Institute, Chennai, Siddha Regional Research Institutes at Puducherry and Thiruvananthapuram, Siddha Clinical Research Unit at Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli and Siddha Medicinal Plants Garden at Mettur Dam.

He said there will be single centre studies and multi-centric studies involving the units of CCRS. Digitisation and compilation of herbarium and folklore claims of survey of medicinal plants unit will be taken up.

“We will also be studying folklore medicine. We will be looking at the age-old practices of tribals such as ‘paati vaithiyam’, collect details and see if it can be validated,” he added. The drugs developed will be subjected to animal testing only at the Chennai unit, while drug analysis will be carried out at Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram units, he said.

“We will also be studying folklore medicine. We will be looking at the age-old practices of tribals such as ‘paati vaithiyam’, collect details and see if it can be validated,” he added. The drugs developed will be subjected to animal testing only at the Chennai unit, while drug analysis will be carried out at Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram units, he said.

“We will be studying the efficacy and toxicity of drugs on animals,” he added.

He noted that the funds have been distributed and granted to the research officers/principal investigators, and required equipment for testing of drugs is being arranged.

With CCRS entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with VIT University recently, he said there will be mutual share of infrastructure and facilities.

Monday, October 12, 2015

AYUSH new dept to test drugs

AYUSH plans new dept to test drugs
By Nozia Sayyed, Pune Mirror | Oct 10, 2015, 02.30 AM IST

No tests in the last five years, FDA and dept officials blame one another

While Ayurveda is increasingly been seen as an alternative healing process across the country, the medicines being consumed have not been tested for the past five years.
While the department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), has proposed to start its own drug control department, similar to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, currently, there is a major blame game going on between AYUSH officials from Delhi and Maharashtra and authorities from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Both sides feel that it is the other's responsibility to conduct tests.

Dr Manoj Nesari, adviser, Ayurveda, AYUSH, India, confirmed that the ministry has proposed a whole new department to test Ayurveda drugs, which will also be called DGCI. When asked why the drugs were not tested for so many years, he said, "The individual states are responsible for sampling and testing. However, to overcome this loophole, we plan to initiate a new department so that we are not dependent on FDA or other, similar authorities."

The new department will not only test the drugs, but ensure they are not marketed until they have been passed by DGCI, Nesari added.

Elaborating on how the new department will function and on its progress, another adviser, for Ayurveda, Departmant of AYUSH, Dr DC Katoch, said, "The idea was proposed three months ago, but we haven't got the go-ahead yet. We are still awaiting a formal reply from the ministry and hence cannot reveal too many details."

When state AYUSH director Dr Kuldeep Kohli was asked about drug collecting and contaminated medicines doing the rounds, he said, "Drug testing is totally FDA's responsibility. They should be keeping an eye on the sub-standard and contaminated Ay-urvedic drugs. We don't have the requisite facilities, so we cannot be blamed if Ayurveda medicines that are being consumed are not tested. We have not received any communication from the FDA in many years regarding testing Ayurveda products."

However, Maharashtra FDA joint commissioner for drugs, S Sadhwani, denied the allegation, saying, "We have been collecting and testing samples and have filed cases against people who are selling contaminated or low-quality Ayurveda medicine." When asked how many such cases had been filed and how many samples of Ayurveda drugs tested in the last five years, he said he could not remember.