Homoeo Info

New Delhi: The government may take back its earlier plan to provide five-year data protection to traditional systems of medicine.
The change has been triggered by the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) taking the view that such a protection will lead to similar demands from the allopathic segment.
While the government has been supporting the move to introduce data protection for traditional medicines, it has been reluctant to offer similar protection to the pharmaceutical sector in general due to the concerns of the domestic drug industry.
Domestic manufacturers say 'data protection', which results in 'non-reliance' of data generated by the patent-holding company, will increase the cost of drug production and delay the entry of generic drugs into the domestic market.
Incidentally, it was the Department of AYUSH that initially proposed such a protection to encourage generation of data for scientific validation of traditional medicines.
The government's plans for data protection began after a high-level inter-ministerial committee, set up by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals in 2004, favoured such protection for traditional medicines and agro-chemicals.
Joe C Mathew/Business Standard, India - Feb 8, 2008

Labels: India