From ‘science of life’ Ayurved becomes a ‘slice of life’ with over 20 billion $ global market

The ever increasing importance of Ayurveda has put it in the centre of millions of people’s life in India and across the globe. Originated more than 5000 years ago, it is considered by many as the oldest healing method which is based on the science of life. It is also termed as mother of all kinds of healings, which gave a new life to people when hardly any system of healing existed. Ayurveda sees its impression in the ancient Vedic culture and was taught for thousands of years by accomplished masters in an oral, practical and experiential tradition.

Globalisation of Ayurveda

Owing to its rising popularity among all sets of people in all across the world, globalization of Ayurvedic practices has gained momentum in the past two decades. Ayurvedic drugs are used as food supplements in USA, European Union and Japan. Many physicians practice Ayurveda in many parts of the world. Facilities are available in countries like USA, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia, UK, Israel, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka (Kurup, 2004) for imparting short and long-term training in Ayurveda.

MoUs with 25 countries

Ayush Ministry has signed 25 country to country MoUs for cooperation in field of traditional medicine and Homoeopathy with foreign nations.  32 MoUs have been signed with international institutes for undertaking collaborative Research/academic collaboration.  14 MoUs have been signed with international institutes for setting up of AYUSH Academic Chairs in foreign nations.  Ministry of Ayush has provided support for establishment of 38 Ayush Information Cells in 34 foreign nations.

Relevant rules for manufacturing Ayurveda medicines

Seeing people in millions embracing Ayurveda, the Ministry of Ayush has brought the manufacturing of these medicines under the scope of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and relevant rules were also made thereunder. As per the provisions of the Drugs rules, 1945, manufacturing license is granted by the concerned State Licensing Authority only after ensuring that the requirements specified under Schedule T for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani medicines and Schedule M1 for Homoeopathy medicines.

Pharmaco-vigilance of Ayurveda

The Ministry of Ayush has also implemented a Central Sector Scheme of Pharmacovigilance of Ayurveda, Siddha Unani & Homeopathy drugs since June 2018 for inculcating the culture of Adverse Drug Events (ADE) reporting, documentation and analysis for further regulatory action. The scheme has an established three tier network. All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi has been designated as the National Pharmaco-vigilance Coordination Centre (NPvCC). At present, there are five Intermediary Pharmaco-vigilance Centres (IPvC’s) and 74 Peripheral Pharmaco-vigilance Centres (PPvC’s).

International standards are maintained

International standards for AYUSH products are governed by WHO-GMP, EU-GMP or any other standards that are laid down by the importing countries and to comply with other requirements of importing countries. The WHO certification scheme, which is a scheme of Certificate of Pharmaceutical Product (COPP) is issued by National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for the purpose of international commerce for registration of products in foreign countries. Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) issues Certification of Pharmaceutical Product (COPP) to Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani products after examination of such applications in consultation with the Ministry of Ayush.

Promotion of Ayush products for Covid-19

The Ministry of Ayush has issued direction to all state government/UT’s to give permission for issuance of license to the Ayurvedic drug manufactures to manufacture and sell in generic name as ‘AyushKwath’ in accordance with the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945 in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.  During the second wave of this pandemic, the scientists of reputed research institutions of the country have found that AYUSH 64, a poly herbal formulation developed by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) is useful in the treatment of asymptomatic, mild and moderate COVID-19 infection as an adjunct to standard care. In order to provide maximum benefit of Ayush systems of medicine, a Nation-wide campaign for distribution of AYUSH-64 and KabasuraKudineer (Siddha Medicine) was taken up across the country.

Use of different Kits

During COVID-19/Omicron surge, the Ayush Ministry promoted the use of Ayuraksha Kit, BalRaksha Kit and Ayur care Kit for the health promotion of the masses. In this regard all the state licensing authorities were informed that requirement of separate licence for making kits with the specified components of Ayuraksha Kit, BalRaksha Kit and Ayur care Kit for the manufacturers having valid license of the individual component of the kit is not required.

Schemes to support Ayurvedic medicines production

Under National Ayush Mission (NAM) from 2014-2021, apart from other services, grant-in-aid were also provided for strengthening of state government ASU&H Pharmacies. Also, under medicinal plants component of NAM, financial assistance has been provided in the form of subsidy to encourage the farmers for cultivation of medicinal plants throughout the country. At present, Central Sector Scheme for AyushOushadhiGunavattaevamUttpadanSamvardhanYojana (AOGUSY) has been implemented for the year 2021-2026. One of the components of the scheme is strengthening and up-gradation of Ayush Pharmacies to achieve higher standards.

‘e-CHARAK’ mobile application

In order to provide a platform for trade of medicinal plants and to provide easy market access, National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush has launched “e-CHARAK” mobile application as well as web portal for the promotion and marketing of medicinal plants/herbs. “e-CHARAK” is a platform to enable information exchange between various stakeholders mainly farmers involved in the medicinal plants sector across the country. The “e-CHARAK” application supports different local languages and it also provides fortnightly market price of 100 Medicinal Plants from 25 herbal markets across India.

AYUSH Export Promotion Council

The “AYUSH Export Promotion Council” has been registered under section 8(4) of the Companies Act 2013 on 4.01.2022 under the Ministry of Ayush in support of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to tackle the obstacles for registration of Ayush products abroad, undertaking of market studies and research activities abroad Ministry of Ayush under its international fellowship/scholarship programme offering scholarships to foreign nationals for undertaking Ayush courses in premier institutions in India. MoUs have been signed with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSH&TM), UK and Frankfurter Innovations zentrum Biotechnologie GmbH (FIZ), Frankfurt Germany for clinical research studies on mitigation of Covid-19 through Ayurveda.

Ayush market size growing rapidly

Buoyed by the growing global and domestic demand and enabled by a strong support to regulatory, research and development mechanism, and back-end infrastructure by the Ministry, the market size of Ayush has grown by 17 percent in 2014-20 to reach US dollars 18.1 billion. As per the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) report, despite a slump in economic activity in 2020 due to the pandemic, the industry is projected to reach US dollar 20.6 billion in 2021 and US dollar 23.3 billion in 2022.