International workshop: Call to invest in treatment of ‘poor man’s diseases’

‘Profit-centric drug manufacturers neglect ailments prevalent in developing countries’.

Chemists from Islamic countries called for investment in research and development of drugs targeting “poor man’s diseases”.

These include a range of diseases caused by individual pathogens and groups of conditions caused by related microbial species, such as dengue, rabies and tuberculosis (TB). These diseases are spread by animal hosts such as dogs, fish or by vectors such as mosquitoes, black flies, snails, bugs and common house flies.

The chemists were speaking at a workshop in Islamabad titled “Modern Applications of Combinatorial Chemistry” organised by the OIC Ministerial Committee for Scientific and Technological Cooperation (Comstech) in collaboration with International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) of the Karachi University and Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (Comsats).

Speaking on the occasion, Director HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry and ICCBS, Dr Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, said that OIC and developing countries must set up a fund for research and development of drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases like dengue, rabies and TB. He said that research on medicine by the advanced world is profit centric and world’s pharmaceutical corporations are investing in production of drugs most of which are not targeted at ailments prevailing in the developing countries.

Comstech Science Advisor Dr Anwar Nasim said that through a series of 24 workshops this year, the committee plans to train 1,000 scientists of the OIC member states in cutting edge technologies. “We believe that economic prosperity of the Islamic nations including Pakistan is linked to excellence in science and technology,” he added.

He said that through a competitive process, around 50 young scientists from different Islamic countries will be selected and trained in frontier technologies in different scientific fields, for which renowned trainers from within the Muslim world and advanced countries such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom will be hired, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2011.