Скачать или смотреть In 1944, Asima Chatterjee became India's first female PhD in science,

Dr. Asima Chatterjee: Overlooked Pioneer in Cancer Drug Discovery

Colonial-Era Scientific Bias
During the mid-20th century, Indian scientific contributions were routinely marginalized by Western institutions. In a 1957 editorial, The Lancet dismissed much of India’s medical research as merely "derivative," a reflection of the deep-rooted colonial attitudes that ignored indigenous innovation and expertise. This bias significantly affected the global recognition of Indian scientists like Dr. Asima Chatterjee.

Restrictive Patent Laws and Exploitation
Before India signed the WTO TRIPS agreement in 1995, the country did not allow product patents on pharmaceuticals—only process patents. While this enabled domestic production of affordable generics, it also allowed Western companies to patent drugs based on Indian discoveries abroad. As a result, the vinca alkaloids (notably vincristine and vinblastine), derived in part from Chatterjee’s research on the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), were patented and commercialized in the West with little credit to her.

Nobel Prize Oversight
Canadian scientist Robert Noble and his team received widespread acclaim for their work on vincristine and vinblastine in the late 1950s. Despite Chatterjee publishing earlier foundational work on the alkaloids of Catharanthus roseus, she was neither credited nor nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her contributions were obscured in part due to geopolitical marginalization and gender bias in science.

Delayed Recognition and Reparative Justice
In 2018, following advocacy by Indian scientists and historians of science, Dr. Chatterjee was finally recognized as a co-discoverer of vinca alkaloids when her name was added to the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. This act of scientific reparation acknowledged her decades-old work in natural product chemistry and cancer pharmacology.

Modern Scientific Acknowledgment
In 2020, the journal Science published a retrospective article on the history of vinca alkaloids and, for the first time in an international mainstream scientific forum, cited Dr. Asima Chatterjee for her foundational contributions to the field.

Who Was Dr. Asima Chatterjee?

Born: 23 September 1917, Kolkata, India

Died: 22 November 2006

Field: Organic Chemistry, Phytomedicine

Education: First woman to earn a Doctorate in Science (D.Sc.) from an Indian university (University of Calcutta, 1944)

Specializations: Alkaloids, coumarins, and plant-based chemotherapy agents

Major Achievements:

Pioneered research on the anti-epileptic drug Ayush-56 derived from Marsilia minuta.

Advanced studies on anti-malarial and anti-cancer compounds from Indian plants.

First female scientist to be elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress (1975).

Awarded Padma Bhushan in 1975.