The Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) under the Department of Animal Welfare has sought specific details of the medicines where ingredients of animal origins are used. It also wanted to know the source of procurement and the extent of usage of such ingredients in the medicine.

In a request made to Department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) of the Union Health Ministry, CPCSEA wanted to know whether there can be an alternative to the use of animal parts in the preparation of such traditional medicines.

Interestingly, this is the second time CPCSEA is making such a request to AYUSH. The earlier request for a list of items that contain ingredients of animal origin was met by AYUSH when it furnished a long list of such products. However, it had not given any information on the quantity or source of such procurement. AYUSH had only replied that many of the medicines containing animal part ingredients are not manufactured now as the companies involved are either substituting these drugs with similar synthetic drugs or have all together stopped its manufacture. The CPCSEA is known to have expressed dissatisfaction over the reply as the source of products of animal origin and a detail of substituted products were not clear and has sought clarifications regarding the same.

The CPCSEA request to AYUSH to furnish the list of products using ingredients of animal origin in their medicines attains significance in wake of the recent controversy involving popular yoga guru Swami Ramdev and the alleged presence of animal parts in the ayurveda medicines produced by Divya Yog Pharmacy, Uttaranchal owned by him. Leftist MP, Brinda Karat, who triggered the controversy, had alleged that the herbal ayurvedic medicines prepared by the Divya Yog Pharmacy, contained animal material and human bones. The analysis of the samples submitted by the MP had indicated a prima facie violation of licensing and labelling provisions of the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.