Ayurveda patents soar but global imprint limited

Pannir Soppu or Pannir Patre (Kannada) is a flowering plant grown in the Nilgiris. Boasting of over 400 species, it's also found in the Pushpawati river bed and a few other places in India. Some other variants are found in South Africa too.

It has been around for ages. But its status changed about a year ago in India. On February 19, 2015, the Indian Patent Office granted Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) a patent for libido enhancement or treatment of erectile dysfunction. CSIR now also holds an international patent for its invention using Pannir Soppu or geranium.

From libido enhancement to cancer and rabies treatment, India has granted patents to 131 ayurvedic medicines at an average of 14 per year in the last decade. A few have also been granted to international applicants like CSIR but the number is low.

A separate department (AYUSH), digital library of 43,000 formulations and dedicated funds from the government notwithstanding, traditional Indian medicine formulations have not been able to penetrate the foreign market as much as Chinese ones.

Scientific Validation Key

To change this, India is looking at a partnership with the US, a delegation from where is expected to reach New Delhi in March. "One of the main reasons for this is the lack of scientific validation. Proper research and documentation is the need of the hour. The issue was discussed in a meeting with the joint secretary in Bengaluru on Sunday. A roadmap will soon be in place," integrated medicine expert Dr Issac Mathai told TOI.

Anticipating some major developments, he said: "This was one of the things Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama had discussed. We are looking forward to the partnership yielding good results."

Another expert, Dr G Gangadharan, director, MS Ramaiah Indic Center for Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, said: "...The government's intentions are laudable but there seems to be a lack of focus. Out of the 40,000-odd formulations that the government has documented only 1,500 are in the market. That's a great indication of how much work needs to be done. Ayurveda is one thing India can give the world and there must be a sustained, focused effort."

He also said the formulations documented are only one for category. There are at least 250 more categories, each of them containing hundreds of formulations.

In one such example, a Kozhikode practitioner was granted a patent on July 29, 2015, for his herbal composition for treatment of Rhabdovirus (rabies), which the practitioner claimed cannot be cured by western medicines once the symptoms come to the fore. "For other countries to accept that ayurvedic medicines have a great impact, there needs to be validation. That will come only with contemporary research and documentation of the findings," Gangadharan said.

Mathai said, "There is a need for India to understand the problems hindering the promotion of ayurveda, a major one being standardisation. That is the advantage western medicine has. The standard is the same, no matter where in the world you make it. We need to get there."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Ayurveda-patents-soar-but-global-imprint-limited/articleshow/51006479.cms