Monday, November 29, 1999

Generic drugs key to control of diseases: Azad

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

New Delhi, May 17 (PTI) Holding that cheap generic drugs are the key to prevention and control of diseases, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said recent attempts to confiscate in transit, legitimate exports of such medicines from India have been viewed with concern by the government. "Affordable diagnostic kits and cheap but good quality generic drugs hold the key to any meaningful progress on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. We, therefore, view with concern recent attempts to confiscate in transit, legitimate exports of generic drugs from India," Azad said in his address at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. "We are very clear that unless our people can afford and access treatment, their health seeking behaviour would not change. "There would be no meaningful impact on the Non Communicable Diseases Incidence (NCDs) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would continue to be an uphill task," he said. The minister informed the member countries of the WHO that maternal mortality ratio in India has come down to 254/1,000 live births in 2006 from 301/1,000 live births in the year 2003. This shows a decline of 47 points over a period of three years. He said as against a projected figure of five million HIV/AID patients in the country, the current numbers are 2.3 million and these numbers have started showing a declining trend. Azad also had a meeting with US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Both the Ministers appreciated that India and US are strategic partners in several areas including health. He thanked the US department of Agriculture for organising food safety training every year at the Michigan State University for the personnel of Food Safety Standard Authority of India. He also recalled that the US food and Drug Administration has opened their office in Delhi which facilitates exchange of Information. Both the Ministers discussed the latest position of Memorandum of Understanding regarding setting up of the Global Disease Detection Regional Centre (GDD) at New Delhi.

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Click here to read more news from www.newsinfoline.com
Please follow our blogs

newsinfolinephotogallery
prabugallery
newsinfolinephotogallery1

photogallery1

No comments:

Post a Comment