Kathmandu, May 28: The first ever clinical trials for an Ayurvedic treatment of AIDS will begin soon. The Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, in association with the Mumbai-based J J Hospital and the US-based John Hopkins University, has worked out the modalities for the trial. Short-term results are expected in a year's time, while the complete study will stretch for at least five years. The significance of the trial is that for the first time an Ayurvedic medicine will be put on trial at a hospital which dispenses allopathic treatment, marrying the best of the two systems of medicine. John Hopkins University will test the viral load in patients subjected to the tests which determines whether the test has been successful or not. The University may agree to conduct the test at a confessional rate for the Council. The trails will follow established medical norms which involves standardisation of formulation, botanical and and bio-chemical testing and animal-tests. Because the individual components of the formulation have been used in India for centuries, The World Health Organisation has consented that clinical trials on human beings and biochemical testing for toxicity will take place simultaneously. Such an exception is not made for allopathic drugs. The planning for the study, referred to as Protocol in medical parlance, has charted the route for the trial such as the dose of formulation, performa for examining the efficacy and assessment criteria. "An advisory committee has already scanned through the Protocol," health ministry official said.
A drug trial incurs phenomenal expenditure and takes at least a decade before it hits the market. In case of the Ayurvedic formulation for AIDS, the expenditure is slated to be about Rs 25 lakh. The Central Government has ambitious plans that it will be able to apply for patent for the formulation, if the trials are successful.