128 SOCIAL SCIENTIST little innovative content. Moreover, the strength of the R&D base in the drug industry, lies in the area of Process Technologies. With steps to change the Indian Patent Act in line with the GATT agreement, in one sweep this base will become meaningless. Today the industry is not, by and large, in a position to invest in development of new Product Technologies. Pious wishes aside, it needs to be understood that investment required to develop a new product with definite therapeutic advantage is far in excess of the total turnover of most Indian companies. Compare the present R&D expenditure of about 100 crores annually to the estimated cost of development of a new drug, which is about 300 million dollars or roughly Rs. 950 crores. In fact whatever scattered efforts have been made in development of Product Technologies, have come from CSIR laboratories. Recent examples of this is the development of Centchroman, a non-hormonal contraceptive, and ongoing trials on the cerebral stimulant effect of Brahmi. Both are research efforts of CDRI Lucknow. What are the steps being taken to encourage this? Centchroman continues to flounder in the market, in the absence of a planned strategy for its promotion and marketing. Merely giving incentives to drug companies which use technologies developed by CSIR laboratories is not going to give a boost to our R&D efforts. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 1992, O.U.P., Delhi.1992 2. Ibid. 3. UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 1990, O.U.P., New York, 1990. 4. WHO, Primary Health Care: A Joint Report by the Director General of the WHO and the Executive Director of UNICEF, Geneva, 1978. 5. Bhatt, Ramesh, "The Private Health Care Sector in India", Health for the Millions, Vol. II, No. 1, Feb.1994. 6. UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 1992, O.U.P., Delhi, 1992. 7. Ghosh, Arun, "Infrastructure Development: The Economic Issues", paper presented at the seminar on "Infrastructural Issues in the Current Context", Teen Murti, New Delhi, October 71994. 8. This is part of a Rs. 302 crore World Bank project in 66 endemic districts for leprosy control. It is a nice illustration of how donor agencies, while providing only a small part of health care costs, can determine determine policy directions. 9. Cited in Majumdar, J.S., Background Paper in Amit Sen Gupta, (ed.). The Drug Industry and the Indian People, DSF and FMRAI, New Delhi, 1986. 10. Govt of India, Report of the Committee on the Drugs and Pharmaceutical Industry, New Delhi, 1975.