The reason for us not being informed about what’s going on in the world
of science today has nothing to do with Armenia being passive. If we
look at things a little more closely we will see that in reality, there
are many scientific projects being carried out today in Armenia and how
many grants Armenian scientists receive for continuing and developing
those scientific projects. In addition, today many Armenian scientists
get invited to go work abroad.
Bagrat Gharibjanyan is the director of the Mnjoyan institute of refined
organic chemistry, doctor and professor of medical sciences,
academician of Armenia’s academy of medical sciences, Russian and
European academies of natural sciences, and the international academies
of sciences for nature, society and national security issues. He
explains why his institute has an exception. The thing is that the
Mnjoyan institute, compared to other similar institutes in the world,
is the only one where the decomposing of drugs to biological substances
is carried out in the institute. Mr. Gharibjanyan has been to 32-33
countries in the world and he has seen with his own eyes how separate
institutes open up to carry out one project.
The Mnjoyan institute works on treating and preventing the spread of
illnesses in the following four areas: treatment and prevention of
cardio-vascular illnesses, cancer, leukemia, contagious and
inflammatory illnesses, toxemia of the central and peripheral nervous
systems, as well as psychological illnesses.
During the past few years, the use of methods such as tranquilizers,
drugs, analgesic drugs has reduced. In the institute there are chemical
and biological experimental laboratories respectively. The drugs pass a
long experimental stage. The preclinical experiments are very important
and they have developed a lot in the past 20 years. The preclinical
experiments done on the drugs observe any dangerous side effects that
the drug may have on the organism and whether or not it will cause
another illness. As stated by Mr. Gharibjanyan, 20 years ago drugs
never used to go through preclinical experiments and as a result those
drugs make a negative impact on the organism. There have been times
when people complain that the drug has many dangerous side-effects such
as cancer, allergies and other similar sicknesses. After the
preclinical experiments, the drug then goes through clinical
experiments and then large amounts of the drug get ordered.
The institute has prepared a list of “original” drugs. There have been
more than forty “original” drugs offered to the pharmaceutical
committee in Moscow but only some drugs have passed. The drugs with the
highest demand are Ditilin, Gangleron, Tiodine, Polfemid. Besides these
“original” drugs, the institute also produces 12 well-known drugs,
including “Aspirin”, “Byseptol”, “Analgin”, “Aloe”, “Novokayin” and
others.
In many countries today “Analgin” is banned in pharmacies.
Mr. Gharibjanyan also affirmed the above mentioned: “There are rumors
spreading that “Fenatsitin” is also banned because experts have
discovered side-effects of cancer in the drug. There was a time when
“Analgin” and “Fenatsitin” were at a high demand in the entire Soviet
Union. The world health organization has many laboratories where there
is some information that the drugs which have dangerous side-effects
are not sold in stores. The Mnjoyan institute prepares the “Analgin”
with the client’s order. In Armenia, the production and sale of
“Analgin” is not forbidden.”
According to Mnjoyan, in order to receive original drugs today the
leading pharmacies spend large amounts of money, approximately
$800,000,000-$1,000,000,000 dollars. No pharmacy has spent that much
money on the research and production of drugs even in the Soviet era.
Nowadays the most serious type of illness is considered to be cancer.
One percent of the Armenian population suffers from this disease
(according to statistics, about 32,417 people). There have been 5957
cases reported in Armenia in 2003. One of the main courses taken by the
Mnjoyan institute is the treatment and prevention of cancer. In
response to my question about whether or not there will be drug in the
future that will cure cancer, Mr. Gharibjanyan replied: “I am a cancer
specialist, I have done my doctorate in the institute of anti-cancer
research in the U.S. When they ask me, ‘Will there be a time when
cancer will be cured?’, I answer people giving me the question that
they don’t fully know about cancer. Today there is a big progress seen
in curing cancer-not only by operations, but also through the use of
drugs and nobody can deny this. Nowadays people can cure throat cancer,
some types of lycose illnesses, intestinal cancer and breast cancer.
But when the cancer gets deeper, it is simply illogical to go up to a
doctor and demand that he cure you. In case that happens, the only
thing that the doctor can do is just prolong the sick patient’s life
and help relieve him or her from pain. At the present, the numerous
chemical substances surrounding us (air, water, pollution, different
hormones found in meat products) have increased the rates of cancer.
You can never expect some miracle drug which will cure anyone in case
of sickness. The organism’s immunity can not accept every drug. The
given drug may help someone, but hurt the other. For example, when
penicillin first came out, everyone thought that this drug will cure
all problems connected with purulent illnesses, but things didn’t go
that way. The same refers to all other drugs.”
P.S. A while back, the staff working on medical researches at the
Mnjoyan institute used to receive benefits. For example, milk. Now the
staff workers get checked up once every year. “If I am not mistaken,
the medical check-up is free of charge,” said Mr. Gharibjanyan. But if
he is mistaken, then it is hard to imagine how today’s doctor can find
the time to think about his health while worrying about his daily life
when the average salary paid at the Mnjoyan institute is 16,400 drams
($30 dollars”). But this is a different story which could serve as a
good topic for discussing the social status of Armenian scientists.