The Voluntary Health Education and Rural Development Society (VHERDS), an NGO run by the Kanchi Kama Koti Peetham, is planning to set up a sophisticated Quality Control and Drug Standardization laboratory at the Poonamalee Ayurveda College premises near Chennai.

The lab, a collaborative venture with the Ayurveda college which is also run by the Kanchi Kama Koti Peeth, would be exclusively meant for the herbal drug industry, sources told Pharmabiz.com.

An estimated investment of over Rs. one crore is required to purchase the sophisticated equipments, and the promoters have approached the central rural development ministries' CAPART and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for sponsoring and funding the project. A final picture is yet to emerge on this aspect, said the sources.

The promoters are planning to upgrade the existing laboratory at the Ayurveda College to house the sophisticated lab. Services of the postgraduate and research students at the Ayurveda College would be utilized by the lab, which in turn would help them gain hands on experience. Further, the laboratory would act as the drug control and testing facility for Prithvi Natural Products, the newly formed herbal drug and cosmetics manufacturing company by the Kanchi Kamakoti Peeth's Veda Vyasa Sabha Trust.

The facilities at the centre would be also offered to external companies in an around Chennai, as high quality herbal drug quality control and standardization labs are less in Chennai, said sources.