1. RELEVANCE OF IPR IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE: CURRENT SCENARIO
Divya, Lotika Chawla, Shikha Saxena
Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Uttar Pradesh
Introduction
“Traditional medicine" approaches to health belong to the traditions of each country, and have been handed down from generation to generation. In India, it includes following components: acupuncture, traditional birth attendants, mental healers and herbal medicine. Due to the extensive use of plant materials, traditional medicine is associated with herbalism.
Treating both the mind and body is what the systems of traditional medicines concentrates on. There are 6 well known systems of traditional medicine in our country viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga, Naturopathy and Homoeopathy .
Ayurveda
Yoga
Unani
Siddha
Homeopathy
Naturopathy
Need of IPR in traditional Medicines
India only woke up to bio-piracy after an anti-fungal product derived from the native neem tree received a patent in Europe in 1994, and a turmeric-based cure was patented in the United States in 1995.India got both patents revoked after long battles.
Table : List of indigenous plants of India which were patented in
other countries
Major International Regulations effecting IPRs and traditional Medicine :
"Convention on Biological Diversity" (CBD)
"Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights" (TRIPs).
Conclusion
There is an absence of a framework for the protection of Traditional Knowledge based Medicines at an international level. Both the diversity of traditional knowledge system on use of medicinal plants as well as the resource itself is facing a major challenge in the area of patents and IPRs.
The existence of the traditional knowledge digital library will now dissuade the foreign patent authorities from granting patents and at the same time lift already granted patents involving traditional knowledge. TKDL database acts as a bridge between ancient traditional knowledge in the original languages (which may be in Hindi,Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Tamil, etc.) and a patent examiner at a global level
Traditional Medicine
Common name
Botanical name
US Patent no.
Patentee/Country
Purpose
Kumari
Aloe barbadensis
Michael Collins
Medicine
Amaltas
Cassia fistula
Japan
Antiviral
Turmeric
Curcuma longa
5,401,504
USA
Healing properties
Kala Jeera
Cuminum cyminum
Activates immune system
Kava
Piper methysticum 
Pomegranate
Punica granatum
Antiviral agent
Harad
Terminalia chebula
India
Ayurvedic importance
Aswagandha
Withania somnifera
Skin disorder
Why Traditional Medicine?
Accessible: More than 70% population in India uses non-alopathic system of medicines
Affordable : Traditional medicines are cheaper than generic drugs
Assured safety : Traditional knowledge based system have been used in India for more than 4000 years.
Medicinal plants are also important for pharmacological research and drug development, when plants constituent are used as basic materials for the synthesis of drugs or as models for pharmacologically active compounds to be used as therapeutic agents
Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
TKDL is a digitized record of traditional medicinal knowledge. It is database of more than 230,000 formulations. Some 200 researchers took eight years to create the database after scouring ancient texts on Indian systems of medicine.
It Set up in 2001, as a collaboration between the Council of scientific Research (CSIR) and Department of Ayurveda , Yoga and Naturopathy , Unani , Siddha and Homeopathy (Dept. of AYUSH).
Objective - To protect the ancient and traditional knowledge of the country from exploitation through bio-piracy and unethical patents by available to patent offices through non-disclosure access agreements in an effort to prevent the granting of erroneous patents.
Reference
Jayaraman, K. S India protects traditional medicines from piracy. {doi: /news }
2. Muchae, J. 2000, ‘Indigenous Knowledge and Industry Property Rights: Kenyan Experience’, Inter- Regional Workshop on intellectual Property Rights in the Context of Traditional Medicine, Bangkok.
3. Priyadarsini , G.I Traditional Medicinal Knowledge in India - An Appraisal. Socio - economic voices