Ayurveda, a truly Indian medicinal system, has been neglected in the country of its origin. Today, Indian modern medicine doctors have very little idea about Ayurveda, and the system is not even introduced in the MBBS course. Overall, Ayurveda in India has not changed with the requirements of modern times, and very little research if any has been encouraged by the Government.

         Along with School of Health Sciences, Pune University, a modern medicine-Ayurveda interface was set up by Dr A Chopra in 1989 to explore the Ayurvedic system for better therapy of ‘difficult to treat diseases’. Arthritis was accepted as the model for study. Dr Chopra set up protocols to validate antiarthritic ayurvedic medicines as per modern norms. And the first well designed drug trial for a potential Ayurvedic medicine in patients with RA was begun in 1994. Several have followed with CRD being the co-ordinating center. CRD has contributed on various aspects of Ayurvedic drug development in treatment of RA and OA. A well recognized and validated outcome of this clinical research has been the launch of Artrex; an Ayurvedic derived antiarthritic medicine now manufactured and marketed by Dabur India.