India readies global norms for its traditional medicines
Mint Healthcare Summit, Kotecha said the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has already published 50 standards for Ayush medicines, which are now being converted to ISO standards. “We were sending our products across the globe but certain drug regulators asked us to specify standards for our products and were rejecting its use even as supplements ," the secretary said. “So, we are working with BIS and it has already published 50 such standards which we are willing to convert to ISO standards.
Once that happens, our products would be allowed in more than 150 countries." The ministry, through BIS, is currently setting up a technical committee for Ayush within ISO. The government is also encouraging all Ayush facilities to obtain National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) accreditation and for labs to obtain National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation. The Ayush educational institutes are also being promoted to obtain National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation, the secretary said.
About 153 Ayush hospitals and 40 Panchakarma clinics have already got this accreditation. The traditional system of medicines is a major contributor to India’s GDP, with Ayush medicines and services generating $43.4 billion in revenue. The government aims to increase the contribution of this system of medicine to 5% of GDP by 2047 from 1% now.
Ayush product and services exports stood at $1.54 billion ( ₹114 billion) in 2021. “We are in touch with department of revenue to get the right HSN code for traditional Indian medicines. Once that happens, our exports numbers would already show an increase and with other developments, the exports are set to
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