A Prescription For Curbing Sale Of Spurious Ayurvedic Drugs

KOZHIKODE, 4 MARCH 2020:

The demand to have a uniform regulatory mechanism and licensing system for the sale of Ayurvedic drugs has come up again in the wake of reports that substandard and adulterated products of manufacturers from outside the State are being distributed here through multilevel marketing.

A senior official in the office of the Deputy Drugs Controller (Ayurveda), Kerala, told The Hindu on Wednesday that a proposal had been sent to the Union Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy. The Deputy Drugs Controller is also the State-level authority to give licence to Ayurvedic drug manufacturers. The licences are given only if the drugs are made following the classical formulations as being described in Ayurveda texts or if they are patented or proprietary medicines.

Quality of drugs

The official, however, pointed out that the department was unable to either check the quality of the drugs being manufactured outside the State or take action against those companies.

Also, retail pharmacies need not get licence to sell Ayurvedic medicines right now as there is no mechanism to regulate around 25,000 such shops across the State.

M.M. Sanal Kumar, president of Kozhikode-based Kerala Ayurvedic Cooperative Society Ltd., claimed that there was no way to check if adulteration had happened either at the wholesale or retail level. “Ayurvedic drugs are coming in large numbers from States such as Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Anyone can set up a shop to sell them if they have a licence from the respective local body and a Goods and Services Tax receipt,” he added. Though big companies such as Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, have a mechanism to pick their retail shops, small players do not have any such thing.

The Ayurveda drug inspectors need not check the quality of medicines being sold through shops as their mandatory duty is only to ensure quality at the manufacturing level. The official pointed out that they might resort to it only if there were complaints. As there are only seven drug inspectors all over the State, even that is unthinkable now, he added. The Hindu