India, France to make cheaper cancer, cardiovascular drugs

New Delhi: AIIMS in collaboration with France-based FAM-Medical Academy Foundation and the French embassy in India has decided to develop cheaper medicines for cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

The institutions will also start an exchange programme for researchers of both the countries in the fields of metabolic, infection and neurological diseases that can benefit the patients of both the countries.

"France and India share a long tradition of cooperation in sciences and technology based on more than 60 years of history. The exchange research programme will help in finding the possible advanced treatments in the field of cardiovascular and neurological treatment," FAM president Jean Marie told the media.

Emphasising that the basic motive of the collaboration is to learn from each other's knowledge, Marie said the project aims to bring together doctors and their patients, and the best medicines of the two countries.

The two nations have jointly developed a new medicine to treat infertility. This is likely to be cheaper than other infertility correction methods such as IVF.

However, according to AIIMS, the medicine is currently in trial and will take at least a year to be available in the market.

M.C. Misra, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said: "This conclave has given us an opportunity to gain an insight into the medical development and innovations which will prove to be mutually beneficial."

"We look forward to next level with more such collaborations in the times to come," said Misra.