Narendra Modi pays maiden visit to CDRI, 3 new drugs to be introduced

Lucknow:Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited the premier CSIR-Central Drugs Research Institute (CDRI) here and evinced keen interest in the research work conducted by the state-run institute.

Soon after arriving here on a two-day visit, the prime minister flew in a chopper from the Amausi airport to the CDRI complexDuring his 40-minute stay at the institute, he took a round of the two laboratories and expressed keen interest in the research work being done in the institute.

As he tried to understand the research work, the prime minister even used a microscope to follow the experiments.

He also had a brief interaction with some senior scientists.

CDRI officials briefed him about certain new drugs being developed by the institute for treatment of diseases like osteoporosis and malaria.
Incidentally, Modi is the president of CSIR and this was his first visit to one of its labs in the country. The institute organised an exhibition for the prime minister to highlight its contributions in drug discovery and development. Modi evinced keen interest in some of the exhibits.

Earlier, he planted a sapling of a medicinal plant in the CDRI premises, flanked by Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The visit of the Prime Minister was seen with the launch of three drugs that were showcased before the PM are including anti-malarial, osteoporosis and a drug to treat a blood clot.

CDRI director Madhu Dikshit said phase 1 clinical trial for multiple doses of the anti-malarial drug has been done. It may prove to be an effective new way to treat malaria--a disease which is becoming resistant to current medications.

For the osteoporosis drug, which has national and international patent, the clinical trial for single dose has been done, it will help in speedy bone recovery. While the institute has procured monkey for the blood clotting drug test to see the usefulness of the drugs in treating blood clotting, she added.

The CDRI director said the Prime Minister will see the exhibition first and will make a visit to the Molecular Structural Biology Laboratory and the Natural products chemistry laboratory having 85,000 compounds. The Institute will gift painting to the PM made by scientist Sujeet Khurana.

"He is likely to plant medicinal plant at the Maharshi Charak garden," she added.

The institute is amongst the premier ones and has given 13 of the 20 new drugs developed there.