The Ayurvedic Drug Manufacturers' Association (ADMA) wants the
Department of Ayush to increase the subsidy provided under scheme no 4
and 5 to 50 per cent so that the Ayurveda, Siddha & Unani (ASU) drug
manufacturers can utilise the scheme for the benefit of the industry.
As of now, scheme no 4 and 5 provides only 30 per cent subsidy i.e. upto
30 lakh towards upgrading quality control facilities which is very low.
Moreover the subsidy is available only for one scheme at a time which
is not industry friendly.

This centrally sponsored scheme is
provided for the ASU manufacturers of the country so that they can
improve and upgrade their Quality Control (QC) and manufacturing
facilities with the government support. Scheme no 4 deals with provision
regarding assistance to ASU drug manufacturing units to establish an
in-house quality control laboratory for the purpose of QC testing of all
raw materials or finished products as per pharmacopoeial parameters
including testing of ingredients heavy metals, pesticide residue,
microbial load etc. Whereas scheme no 5 deals with assistance to ASU
manufacturing units having a turnover of upto Rs.20.00 crore for acquiring US FDA/EU good manufacturing practices certification for their units.

Chandrakanth
Bhanushali, general secretary, ADMA, points out, “Though the vision of
the Department is very commendable its not proving to be very effective
as of now. Mainly because the subsidy provided by the government which
is just 30 per cent i.e. upto 30 lakh towards upgrading quality control
facilities and manufacturing facility is very low compared to the
demand. The minimum requirement to reach the GMP is almost one crore, so
how will it be possible for a small scale or micro level ASU
manufacturer whose annual turn over is not more than Rs.25 lakh per annum to benefit with just 30 per cent of subsidy.”

Other
major problem faced by the ASU manufacturers is that the scheme
provides 30 per cent subsidy only for one scheme at a time. Which means
that the ASU manufactures will get subsidy for only one scheme whereas
he will have to invest money from his own pocket for the other scheme
which is quite high and out of reach for many ASU manufacturers.

“We
would request the government to make certain changes in this matter for
the betterment of the industry. We want the government to amend the
subsidy to 50 per cent for each scheme as well as ensure the
availability of soft loans from banks for the up gradation process,”
Bhanushali expressed.

This is not an ADMA recommendation alone.
In fact it has been earlier referred in the planning commission's XIth.
plan steering committee report for the AYUSH sector as well. He
clarified. “We are at the fag end of the XIth plan and are yet to
partake in the fruits of promised plan proposals.”

Further he
pointed out that this schemes should also be extended for clinical
trials and new entrepreneurs. Clinical trials expenditure goes to
minimum of Rs.5 lakh, depending upon the
protocol of the product and the institution conducting the trial, so if
this scheme is extended here it will be a great boost for the industry.

Whereas
if this scheme is extended for new entrepreneur who wants to enter in
the manufacturing of ASU medicines as per WHO GMP or as per Ayush
Premium Mark he will be not facing any funding problems and thus will
also act as a model for others.