Belagavi pharmacist recognized for creating dengue medicine

Ramdas Raikar, Belagavi based Ayurvedic pharmacist who claims to have found first medicine to cure Dengue fever (‘Den-go’ a syrup) was awarded by ASSOCHAM for his unique research in the treatment of dengue fever recently at Bengaluru.

Ramdas Raikar is a BSc graduate from Belagavi and is behind the formulation of what he claims to be the first ever Ayurvedic medicine to control and cure the dengue fever at any stage.

Ramdas was born in family in Gokarna where his family was involved in serving the people with Ayurvedic medicine since many generations. He wanted to promote the use of Ayurveda and commenced his career by marketing medicines.

In the year 2000, he started his own firm as Ayurvedic research and remedies (ARAR) at Kanabargi industrial area in Belagavi where he started researching on ancient Indian medicine formulations with a 5 member researcher team.

After introducing Virocil an effective antiviral medicine on swine flue, Raikar formulated ‘Den-go’ a syrup made by various herbs including caracia papaya to control and cure dengue. Revealing the story of finding this medicine, Raikar said an Ayurveda student from Malaysia had prepared paper presentation on how the dengue can be cured by caracia papaya herb. We got that presentation and started further thorough research on it near about two years.

The new formulation was tested at Dr Prabhakar Kore research centre and at B M Kankanwadi Ayurveda college in Belagavi. Before giving to people the medicine was tested on the rats after injecting the dengue virus in them. The results of curing were positive at all stages. The medicine was distributed to thousands of patients who cured by it in 2009-10 he said.

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by a mosquito. When dengue diagnosed in NS1 antigen stage, it can be controlled within 24 hours by this medicine and if it detected in IgM level, it can be controlled and cured in 5 to 6 days and if the dengue is secondary infection in IgM level, it will take 2 weeks time to cure says Raikar.

The product was awaiting approval from the Ayush department, for which he produced over 120 clinical reports of the medicines to formula committee. The higher officers at the committee literally teased me that how can a small pharma firm can formulate a remedy for dengue. But when I decided to knock doors of the court, the department gave me approval for the medicine in 2014 he said.

M S Faaruqi, Secretary for Ayurvedic medicine manufacturer’s association said ‘This medicine has been recognized as life saving drug at the central Council for research in Ayurvedic science (CCRAS), Delhi. After this medicine has come in the market, nearly about 200 similar medicines came in market, but they did not survive.

Ramdas Raikar further said in the initial phase, it was big struggle to introduce this medicine to doctors. But today doctors have realized the effect of the medicine. In just a year; 50,000 bottles have been sold in Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. We are trying to make this medicine available at government hospitals in coming days. In coming days, we will be engaging in cancer research he added.