STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and Vice President CSIR, Dr. Harsh Vardhan along with Minister of State for DoNER and PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated the newly built Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) Plant for extraction, formulation and packaging of medicinal plants based on phytopharmaceutical drugs at Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), which is a national Institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) here on Thursday.
The facility has been in making for last five years, completed in 2016 and issued a manufacturing license by Drug and Food Control Organization, Jammu and Kashmir.
Other present on the occasion were Dr Girish Sahni Director General CSIR and Secretary DSIR (Government of India), Dr. Ram Vishwakarma, Director IIIM, Prof. S.S Handa (former Director IIIM), Dr G.N Qazi (former Director IIIM), Dr Ashok Vaid (Oncologist-Medanta), key public representatives and other members of the civil society of Jammu.
Before inauguration of this facility, Dr Ram Vishwakarma, Director informed that establishment of this facility at CSIR-IIIM will also help all CSIR Institutes engaged in drug discovery and development in converting their natural product leads to preclinical and clinical development for marketing approvals.
By setting up of this facility in IIIM, the institute has made dream of Sir Ram Nath Chopra (Founder of IIIM) come true as he was the one who recognized the by value of the rich biodiversity of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and thought of drug discovery from the natural resources and actually worked for it for almost two decades after the inception of Drug Research Laboratory (DRL) in 1941, which was eventually taken over by CSIR in 1957 with him as its first Director. Therefore this occasion will also be used for paying rich tributes to Sir Ram Nath Chopra, the great visionary and Founder Director of the CSIR-IIIM by unveiling his statue in the central lawn of the Institute.
During his visit Dr Harsh Vardhan accompanied by Jitendra visited different scientific divisions of the institute. During his visit he interacted with scientists, technical staff and students of the institute.
