President A P J Abdul Kalam said traditional knowledge of Indian medicines and biotechnology should be integrated for inventing drugs in the country. Speaking after inaugurating the new building of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology here, Kalam said biotechnology and traditional medical science should not be kept aloof.

"They should be integrated. Kerala is rich in Ayurveda and high-tech joint research is essential in bio-technology and Ayurveda," Kalam said.

Kalam, to highlight the importance of traditional medicine, shared an experience he had while teaching at the Annamalai University before he assumed the post of President.

Kalam said he met a biotechnologist Arun Balakrishnan who developed a drug from extracts of an herb, which was used by one Velmuruga Vaidyan for curing a special type of cancer.

"Arun Balakrishnan relied on the rich traditional knowledge and kept on his research work and developed the molecule first and then drug," he said adding but other researchers were not ready to believe traditional knowledge.

"Arun Balakrishnan also patented the developed drug in his and Velmurugan's name," the President said.

In this context he said, "Time has come for our researchers to come out with drugs. Researchers should break the tradition of marketing the molecule." "You (researchers) should produce a result within next five years. Finally, the result is the one that strengthens research and also proves the usefulness of research to the common man," he said.