The government has commenced steps to prevent patenting of Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) in other countries by making available the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) data in 11 countries, including the US and the UK. The government is also planning to support cultivation and export of herbal plants, in order to strengthen Indian Systems of Medicines.

The government is facing difficulties to prevent issuance of bogus patents for drugs in Indian Systems of Medicine from foreign countries, which are mainly submitted by Non Residential Indians, said Dr. Anbumani Ramdoss, union minister for health and family welfare, in a press conference at Chennai last week.

Translating data of Indian Medicines into various languages is on progress and registering Indian Systems of Medicine in these countries will help to prevent such bogus patents. The Central Government has already commenced submission of translated data for registration in English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish.

The government will soon register the data in countries like Brazil, Italy, South Africa etc. The minister said that the existing data with 85,000 drug formulations of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems, would be updated by every six months. He said that once the library is registered, getting bogus patent for Indian formulation in that country would become difficult.

The government is also in a long-term plan to spread medicinal plant cultivation all over the country. He said that the plan includes launching four export zones in different parts of the country for medicinal plant exports. Talks were continuing on the joint venture of central ministries for health, agriculture and commerce. He said that the Central Government has requested to the Government of Tamil Nadu for a 100-acre of land near National Institute of Siddha, Tambaram for herbal plant cultivation.