New Delhi: An Indian pharmaceutical firm has developed the country's direst indigenously manufactured anti-malaria drug Synriam. Developed by India-based multi-national corporation Ranbaxy in collaboration with the Indian health ministry, the manufacture of this drug is expected to greatly deflate the cost of anti-malarial treatment in India, as well as make the drug accessible to the masses. “I hope the company will keep the price of this drug at affordable levels so that the poor and needy get it, as it is the poor who suffer the most. We still have huge number of malaria cases. We need to reduce this suffering,” Indian union minister for health Ghulam Nabi Azad said. Rough estimates suggest, that nearly half a million people die after contracting malaria in India annually. In order to arrive at the exact number of malaria casualties in the country, the Director general of health Services, which functions under the aegis of Azad's ministry has formed a committee to isolate and collate the exact number of deaths due to the mosquito-inflicted disease. “With active support of the Center, industries are coming, external agencies are supporting, the Government of India is supporting and this is the time when state governments should come forward and see that we get rid of this menace,” Azad said. “Today, India joins the elite club of the countries to have developed new drug at home for malaria on the occasion of World Malaria Day,” CEO and MD of Ranbaxy Laboratories Arun Sawhney said, adding that the new drug, Synriam, is derived chemically in a lab, and is likely to substitute the global drug Artemisinin – currently in use — which is mainly a plant based product. India reports about 1.5 million cases of malaria every year, 50 per cent of which are of the falciparum malaria strain.
