AHMEDABAD: Non-communicable diseases (NCD) — the diseases that do not spread from person to person and are chronic in nature — account for 63% of deaths in India as per World Health Organization (WHO) report for 2018. It consists of 27% cardiovascular diseases, 11% chronic respiratory diseases, 9% cancer and 3% diabetes among others.“Our lifestyle is contributing to the increasing burden of NCD. We need to look at early diagnosis, molecules specific to India and newer drugs for different ethnic variations. We are working to improve early detection, develop new screening tools and targeted therapy for patients,” said Prof Randeep Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Prof Guleria was chief guest at the 6th convocation of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Ahmedabad (NIPER-A), on Saturday. Other guests at the occasion included NIPER Kolkata director Ravichandran V, Dr Nagarajan V from ICMR and Prof Bikramjit Basu from IISc.
Prof Kiran Kalia, director of NIPER-A, said that the institute has in-depth research going on for studies in diabetes, cancer and neuro-generative diseases. “We are working closely with Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) to study oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in Gujarat population. Our strength is inter-disciplinary research for treatment-oriented results,” she said.
At the convocation, MS (Pharma) degrees were awarded to 69 graduates and a PhD degree was granted.