The Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and Sami Labs Limited, Sabinsa’s sister company, have entered into a tripartite agreement whereby Sami and Sabinsa acquired two Indian patents pertaining to pterocarpus marsupium, an existing ingredient in the Sabinsa global product portfolio.

IIIM, based in Jammu, India, one of the oldest institutions of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was established in 1957 and dedicated to advanced research on the isolation and standardization of drugs from natural products useful against various diseases. Under a sponsored project from ICMR on the isolation of novel compounds from pterocarpus marsupium for blood sugar management, two novel compounds were isolated which showed significant activity in that area. The intellectual property created and filed for both the compounds by carrying out original research in the field of drug discovery for the past several decades resulted in the two Indian patents Sami / Sabinsa have licensed, which are entitled

• "A PROCESS FOR ISOLATION OF NOVEL COMPOUND 2,6-DIHYDROXY-2-(P-HYDORXYBENZYL)-3(2H)-BENZOFURANONE-7-C-ß-D-GLUCOPYRANOSIDE FROM PTEROCARPUS MARSUPIUM " under Patent No. 192163
• "A PROCESS FOR EXTRACTION OF ANTIDIABETIC FORMULATION MAINLY CONTAINING FLAVONOID GLYCOSIDES" under Patent No. 194292

ICMR published clinical trials on this product using the traditional water extract and found the ancient Ayurvedic claims that it can control blood sugar levels to be valid. The human trial by ICMR has been published, and the license for the patents includes use of the results of the anti-diabetic trial.

The agreement was signed at IIIM by Dr. Ram A. Vishwakarma, Director, IIIM, Dr. Sadhana Srivastava, Scientist ICMR, and Dr. Muhammed Majeed, Founder and Managing Director, Sami Labs Limited. Dr R. K. Raina, consultant to IIIM and Dr. Sarang Bani, Director, Biological Science at Sami Labs and Mr Abdul Rahim Head PME were also present.

Dr. Majeed stated that the signing ceremony marked the beginning of a very close association between his science based company and the prestigious research institutions like IIIM. Dr. Majeed is in discussion with IIIM and ICMR for entering into similar agreements covering few more products of interest to the group. “Given that all three organizations entering into this agreement have a mission of validating traditional Ayurvedic medicines through modern research, for the benefit of mankind, there is much we can do together in future."

Dr. Vishwakarma, who is a reputed drug discovery scientist in India, said, "IIIM shall be open to collaborative research with Sami Labs and offer the facilities such as the NABL accredited Quality control lab and GMP production facility to be utilized for the benefit of the Pharma industry in the country."

Seen from right to left at the signing ceremony are: Sh. Abdul Rahim, Dr. R. K. Raina, Dr. R A Vishwakarma,Dr. Muhammed Majeed, Dr. Sadhana Srivastava and Dr. Sarang Bani