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India & france identify areas of coop. in the health sector
New Delhi, January 14, 2008
A 3-member delegation led by the Union Health Minister, Dr.
Anbumani Ramadoss, currently on an official visit to France
met the France Minister for Health, Youth Affairs and Sports,
Ms. Roselyne Bachelot on 9th January at Paris. During the
meeting, besides bilateral issues relating to the health
sector, the following areas of cooperation were identified for
focussed attention; Medical Research, Biotechnology,
Development of vaccine, Promotion of Indian Systems of
medicines and cooperation between ICMR and INSERM of France.
The Indian Ambassador for France Ranjan Mathai and officials
of both the countries also participated in the meeting.
The Health Minister also visited the French National Institute
of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Robert Debre
Hospital, Paris. The Director General of INSERM, Prof. Andre
Syrota and the Director of the Hospital Dr. (Ms). Christine
were also present with him. The INSERM is the only French
public research body entirely dedicated to human health. Its
researchers are committed to studying all diseases, whether
common or rare, through their research in the fields of
biology, medicine and public health.
INSERM's principal mission is to facilitate exchange
between:
- Basic research, sometimes defined as "guided by
curiosity", designed to shed light on the unknown, without
any specific objective;
- Clinical research, conducted with patients;
- Therapeutic or diagnostic research, the purpose of which
is to study diseases;
- Public health research, aimed at gaining a better
understanding of health mechanisms, notably through the
study of particular population groups.
In order to fulfill this mission, the Institute has worked
in close partnership with other public or private research
institutions and care centers such as hospitals from the
outset. Today, 85% of Inserm's 339 research laboratories are
housed within university hospital or cancer treatment centers,
the others being located on research campuses of the CNRS
(French scientific research institute) or of the Pasteur and
Curie Institutes.
A Memorandum of Understanding between the ICMR and INSERM was
signed on 1st February 2007 for strengthening of research in
biomedical sciences. In pursuance of the MoU, a number of
Joint Working Groups have been held, the last being the 6th
ICMR-INSERM JWG meeting held in Paris on 8th June 2007. The
following areas have been identified for collaboration by ICMR
and INSERM: -
- Infectious diseases (TB, AIDS, Malaria, Leishmaniadis);
- Human Genetics and Genomics;
- Neurosciences;
- Surveillance/epidemiology;
- Stem cell research;
- Bioethics; and
- Clinical research etc.
At present, eight joint collaborative projects between
Indian and French scientists are in progress and eight
projects have been successfully completed. In the last JWG
meeting, it was agreed that both the agencies will finalize a
topic out of four areas already identified viz. Translational
Research, Chikungunya, Biobanking, Immunogenetics and Cancer
for the next workshop to be held in India during March-April
2008
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