Dr Badri N Saxena, President, Microbicides Society of India (MSI)

Dr Badri N Saxena
President
Microbicides Society of India (MSI)

Dr Badri Saxena is an internationally and nationally known medical doctor in the field of reproductive health research. Before starting his professional career in India, Dr Saxena had already worked in three topmost medical academic institutions in the world (1. as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Medical School & Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston USA; 2. as a Ford Foundation Fellow at Karolinska Institute & Hospital, Stockholm Sweden; 3. as a Senior Lecturer at Royal Postgraduate Medical School & Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK) . Dr Saxena also had the scientific research and management experience of having worked as United Nations (UN) Staff of World Health Organization (WHO)'s Special Programme for Research in Human Reproduction, Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Saxena has worked in India with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for 21 years (from April 1977 to March 1998). Dr. Saxena had been primarily responsible for developing multi-faceted national programmes for research in human reproduction and nutrition and introduced the concept of Task Force Approach in India for biomedical research activities. To reduce the regional imbalances in a diverse country like India for the national research efforts, Dr. Saxena established a network of collaborating centres in the medical colleges in the different parts of the country - called as Human Reproduction Research Centres ( HRRCs). The HRRC network is now a source of national strength to carry out multicentre studies both clinical and operational researches in the field of Reproductive Health. Dr. Saxena deserves the sole credit for raising the clinical research standards to the international levels in India, by establishing for the first time in the ICMR – the Toxicology Review Panel for the pre-clinical studies as well as the Central / Institutional Ethical Committees for Human Research for clinical trials / human studies. The result of several multicentre studies done in India by Dr. Saxena, have helped to improve the implementation of the national programmes related to family planning, maternal & child health as well as the nutrition programmes.

Dr. Saxena’s main research focus from last four decades of working in both the developing and developed countries has been on improving the health of women and newborns / children. He is currently involved in:

(1) As a Research Professor (Health & Population Policies) at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) New Delhi since May 2000. Dr. Saxena has been focusing on the policy related researches on the reproductive health matters as well as on the public private partnerships for the rural health care including exploring the social health insurance possibilities, which are the priority areas under the National Rural Health Mission.

(2) From October 2001, Dr Saxena has been involved in the national and global research & development efforts on Microbicidal drugs with emphasis on the women-controlled methods for HIV prevention. From February 2004, He is also the Chair of the ICMR’s Experts Research Group on Microbicides Research. Dr. Saxena’s main focuss now is to develop a network of pre-clinical and clinical trial research centres for the microbicidal products and other HIV prevention technologies. Dr Saxena has been the Conference Co-chair for Microbicides 2008 International Conference. Recently , Dr Saxena has been elected as the President of the Microbicides Society of India (MSI).

Dr. Saxena is a rare individual of combining the first rate nationally and internationally recognized research capabilities, while also doing the science management and promoting collaborative research with several international & bilateral agencies as well the NGOs. Dr. Saxena has published more than 150 scientific papers in the international peer-reviewed journals as well as have authored/ co-authored few books. He is a member of several national and international expert groups/ taskforces and winner of several national and international awards. Dr. Saxena is continuing to work as a Consultant in the fields of Reproductive Health as well as Microbicidal products for HIV and non-HIV STIs Prevention, for several national and international agencies.