Straight answers

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Dr Ajit Dangi</span>, Director General, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), On the pharma future of the country<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">After infotech, bio-tech is the next sunrise sector in India. Do you agree?</span><br /><br />India has a great reserve of traditional knowledge in healthcare and medicine.If we have to protect it and benefit commercially from its application, we have to be extremely alert about the latest international research and patent applications. There are many natural sources of beneficial medicine right now in our country which need application and marketing all over the world. If you see the annual statistics, in the US alone, more than 40 per cent of medicine delivery is traditional medicine, while in India and Africa it''s almost 60 per cent. If we are successful in capturing these markets with effective, yet reasonably priced traditional drugs, India will be a super power in bio-technology and the pharma industry.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Some of the important patents in the world are expiring this year. What are its implications for India?</span><br /><br />It''s a fabulous time. As almost all the patent laws in western countries allow patents to remain for 20 years, a huge amount of biotechnology will be free for use in 2004-05. After USA, India is the biggest manufacturer of pharma products and drugs.With major patents expiring in five years, I believe that the market, now worth $25 billion, will go up to $80 billion, provided we improve our production capacity. With programmes like Drug Master Application, developed specially for patients, doctors and experts, India can use its software progress to establish us as a multifaceted pharma producer.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Still problems like fake and spurious drugs are haunting the Indian industry. Comment.</span><br /><br />The OPPI has a three-prong strategy to fight fake drugs. Firstly, we ensure that all the drug producers have overt as well as covert anticounterfeit marks to go along with the drug.We are trying to incorporate these marks in the basic packaging cost, so that prices remain the same. Our second step is to unite the pharma industry against counterfeit producers. If the interests of drug companies, as well as the chemists, are protected and empowered, they will participate in this battle. The third measure is consumer awareness, for which all industries will give monetary, as well as resource contribution, and organise awareness-drives across India.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Internet is the latest media being used by ''magic'' remedymakers to sell their products. What challenge does this pose?</span><br /><br />Of course, all the wonder-drug producers who claim to perform miracles are liable to be punished by the existent Remedies Act in India. It''s difficult, though, to trace these advertisers on the internet and catch them, as they could be anywhere in the world. In this case, I appeal to the intellect of net users. This educated lot should never believe in medicines that make tall claims like overnight improvement. If they were as real as they claim to be, humankind would be revolutionised over-night!<br />sharvari.joshi@timesgroup.com</div> </div>