The central government is planning to set up an export certification agency for promoting Indian System of Medicine (ISM) exports from the country. The export certification given by the government will help promote a "made in India" brand for ISM products abroad. It is expected that such an attempt would enable more penetration for India into the US $ 62 billion global market for herbal drugs.
The importance of developing herbal drugs is being increasingly acknowledged by the government for some time now. It is known that Europe and North America alone account for 62% of the world herbal drug market and is growing at the rate of 11% per year. India is focusing to tap these markets. The department of ISM in the Ministry of Health is interacting with the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Systems of Medicine of the USA and the Medicinal Control Agency (MCA), UK, to ensure that Indian herbal medicines are getting necessary clearances from these regulatory authorities without too much of hurdles. It is known that a team of scientists from the US is to visit India to have more interactions with Ayurvedic experts in this regard.