The Institute of Medical Sciences of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi is organizing a two-day "National Workshop on Global Promotion of Traditional Medicine in view of Institute-Industry Relationship" from November 8, 2002. The workshop is to provide an opportunity to interact with experts associated with the drug development, laboratory medicine and clinical medicine in the field of traditional medical knowledge system.

According to organizers, the programme is to provide a common platform to the senior scientists, academicians, policy makers and the industrialists for mutual interaction and to frame guidelines for promotion and protection of Ayurvedic / herbal medicines at global level in accordance with the policy of government of India for Industry-Institute relationship.

The workshop is sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology as part of its drugs and pharmaceuticals research programme.

The deliberations are to include topics like global promotion of Ayurveda, evaluation of different concepts and practice of ancient medical wisdom, validation or evidence based research findings and guidelines for standardization and quality control of herbal drugs. Patenting of original research source materials and strategies for obtaining FDA approval are also to be part of the discussions during the two-day programme.