India should create database of traditional medicinal plants for specific bioactivity and lead for development of new drugs considering the immense opportunity India has for herbal farming and research, according to Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India.

Interacting to a group of students and healthcare professionals after inaugurating the Pharma Vision 2020 charter of Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC) held at the Sree Ramachandra Medical College, in Chennai, he said that the new technologies such as human genome sequencing, proteomics, pharmacogenomics and ultra high throughput were revolutionizing drug discovery.

Medicinal plants offer enormous scope for development of drugs with the assistance of these technologies. The traditional system of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha etc. have advocated and practiced preventive and curative medicinal recipes specific to individuals, and had a holistic view of the body, mind, food, soul and environment to suggest a preventive or curative approach to health, said the President.

Detailing the ongoing researches in medical field with a self chosen topic- 'removing the human pain-challenges', he said it was essential to launch an integrated national stem cell research programme that could revolutionize treatment for heart care, cancer, blindness and mentally challenged.

The recent identification and characterization of progenitors with stem cell properties has opened new avenues for treating functional impairments caused by the death of specific cell population. The stem cells might help restore functioning of certain defective organs by repopulating or rescuing the damaged cells from further degeneration, said the President.

The President said it was important to have creative leadership in medical field in our attempts to eradicate leprosy, TB, development of HIV vaccine etc. or to control cardio vascular diseases by multiple technologies and practices. Creative leadership means 'exercising the task to change the traditional role from commander to coach, from manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitate self respect'. Higher the creative leadership, higher would be potential for success in medical field in diagnostics, treatment and research for discovering new avenues in healthcare, said the President.