The Core Committee formed by the Tamil Nadu Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani Drugs Manufacturers Association (TASUDMA) for floating a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), an entity for launching an ayurvedic cluster in the state, is now in a dilemma with Ayush Department's recent amendment of the cluster scheme making the norms more rigid. The Core Committee has asked the Union Health Ministry to reconsider the norms to enable the ISM companies to bring their projects into reality.

As per the new amendment, the SPVs should bring in land and other physical infrastructure as its contribution instead of the earlier condition of bringing only land as its contribution.

Ayush Dept said that the SPV should have a minimum of 15 GMP certified manufacturing enterprises to be eligible for funding under the Scheme and of these at least 3 to 5 units should have annual turnover of Rs.50 lakhs and above, and 5 units of Rs.20 lakhs and above to ensure the viability of the cluster.

Further it said, of the companies at least 75 per cent should be license holders for manufacturing of Ayush products under Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1940, for more than three years.

Dr Vijay Mehta, president of TASUDMA, said, in Tamil Nadu there are only 40 GMP certified companies are operating in the state and very few companies are having more than 20 lakhs turnover. He clarified that since the companies have their own Quality Control Lab, they may not be interested to come forward to form the cluster with their own land and infrastructure. "If the government proceeds with this amended rigid norms, not only the concept of Cluster will become a big failure, but also the ISM industry as a whole will perish," he said.

He further wanted the government to take initiative for more flexible norms to attract the smaller units into the scheme for making it a success.

Dr S Thirunarayanan, secretary of Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research (CTMR), Chennai, said in Tamil Nadu there is good acceptance and deep penetration of Siddha and Ayurvedic drugs, but only five companies have a turn over of over 2 crore. They are Impcops, Tampcol, Aravind Herbals, Rajapalayam, SKM Charity Siddha Clinic, Erodu and Lakshmi Seva Sangam Ayurvedic and Siddha Production Centre, Dindukkal.

Therefore, he said, it will be very difficult to bring in ten companies with a turn over of over 50 lakhs to form the SPV. Only the SPV is entitled to apply for the cluster. He asserted that it would be much more difficult to comply with the condition that 75 per cent of the companies should be in operation for over three years as many companies have obtained GMP only recently.

He made it clear that the SPVs would find it difficult to bring in physical infrastructure, as many did not have large infrastructure even for their own operation. With high cost of construction, it is for sure, even the small companies that envisage interest may withdraw from the project, Dr Thirunarayanan said.