Ashok Vaidya, Research Director, Kasturba Health Society

Prof. Ashok D B Vaidya, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist, is known as the father of Reverse Pharmacology. Over half-a-century of career in drug research/ discovery/development, he has pioneered phase 1 to 4 clinical trials with new drugs. He has trained many scientists in drug research. He was the Merck International Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at Yale. He retired as the Regional Medical Director of Ciba. Currently, he is the Research Director of Kasturba Health Society and Adjunct Professor at Saurashtra and Drexel University. He has played a major role in guiding drug research, as a consultant/expert at WHO, CSIR, ICMR, DBT, AYUSH, Universities and Industry.
He has been a leader in new drug research and has around 250 publications. He has received many honours, including lifetime achievement awards from the Indian Pharmacological Society, Nutra Summit India and Unilever. His search for new drugs through Reverse Pharmacology is fruitful in hepatitis, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, malaria and cancer. The evidence in Ayurveda has been enhanced by his school of drug research.