HYDERABAD: At a time when the Centre is pushing for generic drugs availability, Nobel laureate Prof Kurt Wuthrich on Wednesday praised the Indian generic drug industry.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), he said that the work of generic drug manufacturers is ‘true innovation’ because they ensure that poor people in developing countries have access to drugs that are as effective as branded drugs but are available at much cheaper rates.
Recently, in the Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke of government’s plans to amend the drugs and cosmetics rules to ensure availability of generic medicines. Prof Wuthrich raised the issue of science students lacking enough practical exposure in India and termed it is a major drawback of the Indian education system.
Prof Wuthrich, an expert in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR) spectroscopy methods for studying biological macromolecules was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002.
During an interaction with some students at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) Prof Wuthrich asked how many of the present students are working on NMR spectroscopy.
However, when he was asked as to how many students have actually operated a NMR Spectrometer, the number of hands that went up were less than 10. It was after this that the Nobel laureate noted that there needs to be enough equipment easily accessible for science students, keeping in mind India’s emergence in the field of science, which he termed as outstanding.
The Nobel laureate visited IICT and Cellular and Molecular Biology in connection with platinum jubilee celebrations of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).