 |
|
| SCIENCE TRIBUNE | Thursday, September 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India |
|
Scientific institutions fail to market their products
If IVF laws don’t come soon, ‘chaos
will’ NEW PRODUCTS & DISCOVERIES Stem cells may help
cure blindness |
|
|
Scientific institutions fail to
market their products When the dropsy
crisis plagued the country with over 60 deaths reported from the areas
in and around Delhi, the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC),
based in Lucknow, came up with a device to detect adulteration in the
mustard oil. The colour-detection strip, called CD strip, was set
nominally at just 50 paise. The technology was even sold to an
industrial unit, Nilofe, a unit of Basco, a Lucknow-based
company. But, the much-hyped CD strip failed to hit the market. As
owner of Basco was not available for comments, one of the employees of
the company seeking anonymity admitted that the company had not
started production. "We had carried out a market survey and found
people were not interested in this product, so, we have not started
production," he said. This and several other similar cases have
put scientific institutions in a piquant situation: how to find market
for their research products. Despite a full-throttled effort by the
scientific institutions, the so-called people oriented researches of
these organisations have failed to stir a feather in the market. Even
the prestigious Memory Plus capsule, formulations of which was
developed by the CDRI by extracting bacosides from Brahmi and marketed
by a Chennai-based company, Nivaran Herbal Private Limited, vanished
from the Indian market as its users claimed that the drug failed to
enhance memory as was claimed by advertisements. The drug was launched
on February 28, 1996, by the then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao,
and even chess wizard Vishwanathan Anand was roped in to carry out
advertisements. Once complains started pouring in, the CDRI, in a
kneejerk reaction, cancelled the MoU signed with the company and
entered into an agreement with another company, which is yet to start
production. Scientists in the CDRI blame the previous company for the
debacle. Zaka Imam, Head Liaison Department of the CDRI said that the
earlier company (Nivaran) had violated the MoU and was not using the
bacosides — the basic extract of Brahmi — as per the prescribed
limit. "Thus, we were forced to cancel the agreement," he
added. It could be a point of debate as who was at fault, but the
fact remains that almost all the "people oriented"
researches have failed to stir people’s imagination. In some cases,
the scientific institutions have found buyers to transfer the
technology, but in other cases the institutions are still waiting for
prospective buyers for their products. The failure of the
institutions to make a mark in this fast paced advertisement-oriented
market has disappointed scientists. "Crores of rupees and hours
of perseverance are spent in one research. And we try to sell this so
that the people could enjoy the fruits of the hard work of our
scientists. But when we fail to create a niche for ourselves in the
market, then it hurts us," said JK Johri, Head, Information
Liaison department of the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI). The
scientists vouch that there are a number of research projects which
could have changed the lives of people - not only in cities, but also
in villages. The ITRC’s Amrit Kumbh, a water purification device, is
cheap and costs just Rs 250. According to Dr K.K. Gupta, Deputy
Director, ITRC, this device was invented keeping in mind villagers.
Technology is simple and the same was transferred to two companies,
one Lucknow based company Shipra Scientifics and a Delhi company,
Mathbin Scientific Agency. Under this technology, disinfection of
water is based on physio-chemical principles. The life of the filter
is three years or 10,000 litres of water. Interestingly, both
companies have still to start production. Mr Arvind, business partner
in Shipra Scientifics, was candid enough to admit that they had yet to
understand the nitty-gritty of this research. Dripping of filtered
water starts after a point and the ITRC has not been able to plug this
fault. "Yeh yantra hamare samazh hi nahi aaya (I cannot
understand this contraption)," he said in a matter-of-fact
tone Faced with this eventuality, the ITRC, in fact, itself took up
cudgels to ensure its advertisement. During Kumbh Mela and even in
rural congregations, the device was put on display and people were
apprised of the importance of clean water. Even during floods, the
scientists carried this contraption to the inundated villages to drive
home the point. "Despite all our efforts, the utility of this
Amrit Kumbh has failed to impress villagers," said Dr
Gupta. Then, there are a few herbal researches of the NBRI. This
year, the institute has sold its technology of herbal gulal to a
Jharkhand-based company, DM Herbals, subsidiary of DM Shellac Pvt Ltd.
Johri of the NBRI refused to divulge the rate at which the technology
was transferred. But to his own admission, "herbal gulal was sold
at a cheaper rate" because it concerned common people. As per the
MoU signed between the NBRI and the DM Herbals the company will pay
one time technology cost plus 3 per cent royalty on the ex-factory
production cost. In Lucknow, people are aware about herbal gulal, but
did not know from where to get it. "We only knew that NBRI’s
herbal gulal is up for sale, but where, no one knew. The whole thing
was not even advertised properly," said Mahendra Pratap Singh, a
real estate agent. Those who knew about it developed cold feet owing
to its high price. "The price of herbal gulal was exorbitantly
high," said Abhinav Sharma, a class 10 student of New Horizon
Public School, Indira Nagar. He was not off the mark. The said gulal
was sold at Rs 200 per kg against readily available gulal which was
priced anything between Rs 50 and Rs 80 per kg. High price might have
turned the applecart of herbal gulal, but there are a few low-cost
researches of the NBRI which had failed to find suitable buyer. The
institute developed non-alcoholic herbal beer and lipstick. Against
the normally available beer which is made from the fermented barley
water and blended with hop’s extract, the NBRI’s beer is made from
herbs. According to the NBRI scientists, it would be a health
protective and "promotive" drink. The manufacturing cost,
according to Johri, would be around Rs 6 per litre and could be sold
in the market at Rs 20 per bottle. The institute is still looking for
a prospective buyer. Problem, according to scientists, is that the
institutes have no mandate to market their research. "We have no
expertise in this field," said Gupta of ITRC. Our mandate is to
produce, not sell, he said and added: "Moreover, transfer of
technology had not been a money spinning exercise for the
institutions. We earn a little bit, but this earning is just
peanuts." The industry, however, is yet to hear about any such
"people-oriented" research carried by the scientific
institutions. The deputy director of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (PHDCCI) PK Srivastava showed his ignorance about any attempt
made by the scientific institutes to sell their research. "We
have over 250 industrial houses as our members. None of them has ever
informed us about inclination to purchase a product developed by a
scientific institute," he said. The reason, according to Mr
Srivastava, is that the scientific institutes do not interact with the
industrial houses. There is no interface between the industry and
scientific institutions per se. "No industry has even come to us
asking us to arrange for finance to set up any special unit,"
said Srivastava. However, this gloomy scenario has a silver lining
too. There are a few drugs developed by the CDRI which had done a
yeoman’s service to the mankind. The non-steroidal contraceptive
pill Saheli and Arteether —a second generation anti-malarial drug
— had been a success. "We have been able to produce import
substitute drugs, thus putting less pressure on the pockets of
people," said Zaka Imam. |
|
If IVF laws don’t come soon, ‘chaos
will’ Eminent gynaecologist G.A. Ramaraju
has urged the Centre to formulate laws and ethical guidelines
governing in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and stem-cell technology
"before the developments take an ugly turn in the country.’’ Director
of Krishna IVF Clinic, Dr Ramaraju, who has contributed a lot to human
reproduction technology, said the government should wake up before the
situation went out of hand. "This is more so in respect of legal
complications associated with surrogacy, donor insemination and
stem-cell transfer technology as India too is keeping pace with the
rapid developments abroad,’’ he said. The government has started
collecting information for the past four years on the subject, but
failed to frame the guidelines and legislation governing the issues,
the expert said. As more state-of-the-art IVF clinics, with
sophisticated technologies, are emerging in India and institutions
with two cell lines are coming forward in the frontiers of research,
the government "should take immediate steps before the research
went wrong," he said. Among the vexed issues that needed
immediate definition and codification included the legal rights of a
woman after the demise of her husband whose sperm was stored in sperm
banks, the complications involved in handling surrogate mothers and
the fate of frozen embryos of widowed mothers, Dr Ramaraju said. The
success rate in Indian IVF clinics was 30 to 35 per cent, as against a
normal pregnancy rate of 15 to 20 per cent a month in the country,
where childlessness due to various reasons was about 12 per cent among
the women. The cost of each operation, involving artificial
fertilisation of the egg using the spermatozoa of the husband or donor
sperm taking advantage of the laser technology, ranged between Rs
60,000 and Rs 90,000. UNI |
|
NEW PRODUCTS & DISCOVERIES The
Shadow Robot Company, based in London, has received STG75,000 from the UK
government to build a robotic arm to help people with physical impairments.
Shadow’s goal is to produce a multi-functional robot that can be guided,
trained and programmed to carry out useful tasks for people with disabilities.
These functions could include fetching tissues, books or other items, picking
up a telephone or collecting food from the kitchen. The technology the company
has used to build its "helping hand" is called muscles," giving
the robotic arm some functionality similar to human hands. "In the
future, we hope that the people will be able to ask the robot to do things like
getting a glass of water," said Hugo Elias, one of the engineers helping
to build the robot. "This would mean that the robot could go into the
kitchen, find a glass, turn on the faucet, fill the glass and bring it to the
person," he said. Elias admits that such a complicated task is still as
far as five or 10 years away, but the company hopes to have a working prototype
that can perform simpler tasks in the next 18 months. This first prototype
would be controlled through a wireless handset, similar to the interface used
to drive remote controlled cars. Later models could have a voice interface,
cameras, and artificial intelligence to let the arm cook, clean and perform
other basic domestic tasks. "When we ask people if they’d be
interested in something like this, they say ‘Yes.’" Elias claimed.
"They don’t say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Maybe’ they say ‘Yes, we
are very interested’. A lot of people have to rely on others to help them
with these kinds of tasks." The company has already constructed the arm
portion of the robot and all that remains is to build the base that would allow
it to move and the software that would run the machine. The company estimates
that early models would retail for around STG10,000, Elias said.
"Certainly people spend that much on a car, so we think they would pay
that much for one of these," he added. |
|
Stem cells may help cure blindness Stem cells taken from bone marrow can grow new blood vessels in the
eyes of mice, a development researchers say raises the possibility of
treating some diseases that often lead to blindness in humans. In
tests in mice, the stem cells injected into the eye became
incorporated into the eye’s structure and formed new blood vessels.
If the process turns out to work in humans, the scientists hope to
use it to treat eye diseases affecting the blood vessels in the
retina. They include diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular
degeneration, two leading causes of blindness. Dr Martin
Friedlander, who headed the research team at the Scripps Research
Institute in La Jolla, California, said it may be possible to use the
process to rescue sick blood vessels or, in modified form, inhibit the
growth of abnormal vessels in the eye. His research will be
published in the September issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
Peter A Dudley, director of the retinal diseases program the
National Eye Institute, said it is "extremely interesting"
that the team was able to take certain precursor stem cells that can
form blood vessels and then target them.
|
 |
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CROSSWORD
Clues Across: 1. The curve along which a projectile moves. 8. A sea animal with eight suckered arms and round mouth. 9. Abbr. for an Indian Institute of Technology. 10. Atmospheric vapour condensing in small drops on cool surfaces. 11. Either time when the Sun is farthest from equator. 13. A mechanism to do a work. 15. A diagram showing different strata met during a bore-hole in earth. 17. Flat and rigid sheet of metal with uniform thickness. 18. Abbr. for semi-automatic self loading rifle. 19. Designation of officer regulating use of armorial bearings. 21. Viscous inflammable substance. 22. Dome shaped snow hut used by Eskimos. 24. Association of 13 major oil exporting countries working together to have maximum income from oil. 25. A structure erected as support to electric power cables. 26. Yellow inner part of an egg. Down : 1. Glands on each side of root of tongue. 2. Time measured by atomic clock.(abbr.) 3. A steel beam placed from wall to wall. 4. Words that are inscribed on a tomb. 5. Outer skin at the base of finger nail or toe nail. 6. A bitter leaved evergreen shrub. 7. Dark leaved evergreen coniferous tree. 10. Triangular alluvial tract at a river’s mouth. 12. Science related to diseases of ear. 14. A slippery and evasive snakelike fish. 16. Name for grid-iron put on windows for safety. 20. Artificial, enclosed body of water for parking of ships. 22. Abbr. for minimum potential through which an electron falls to ionise an atom. 23. A Latin term used by doctors and meaning ‘every night’. Solution to last week’s
|
