DOST to put up digital library on traditional medicine

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is putting up a digital library that would protect the country’s intellectual property rights on some traditional medicines, officials said.

Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), said the National Digital Library would safeguard the country’s rich source of alternative medicines and traditional medical practices from being pirated by foreign researchers.

In a health forum in Quezon City, Montoya said the two-year anti-bio-piracy campaign started this year with an initial funding of P1 million from the PCHRD.

He said the University of the Philippines would also provide a counterpart funding for the project.

Montoya said the idea of putting up the online library was inspired by India’s successful legal battle against the United States on the patent of the turmeric drug (Curcuma).

Reports said Indians have been using turmeric paste for centuries to treat wounds and stomach infections.

The patent was contested by India’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which combined scientific evidence with legal savvy to take on the bio-pirates, reports said.

After a complex legal battle, the US Patents and Trademarks Office ruled on Aug. 14, 1997 that a patent for turmeric issued to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in December 1993 was invalid because it was not a novel invention.

Meanwhile, in a bid to popularize science and technology in the country, Montoya said the DOST would soon publish popular reading materials such as comic books whose stories are based on scientific researches on health.

“The idea is to translate scientific results of researches to the language of ordinary Filipinos like children,” he said.

He said the popularization of scientific researches would also enlighten policy-makers and the business sector on the value of health research to the people.

The PCHRD has been pushing for the passage of House Bill 5761, or the proposed Philippine National Health Research System Act of 2006.

Montoya said the DOST and Mango Comics recently signed an agreement to produce a comic book that will feature Tron, the agency’s mascot.

Science Education Institute director Ester Ogena earlier said comics would play a big part in promoting science education in the country as well as in educating students about the wonders of science.