Maintaining that nutraceuticals form an integral part of preventive health care, the Alathur Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (APMA) has undertaken a research study in dietary supplements. The result of the study, which is under process, will be sent to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry soon. The study was conducted in association with Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu.

R. Rajakumari, the research guide working with APMA says that nutrition related risk factors contribute to more than 40% deaths and 30% of overall disease burden in developing countries and India is no exception. According to her, India is reeling under the burden of nutritional deficiencies and majority of the Indian population is lacking the purchase power to even consume the diet sufficient in calories. However, there has been an improvement in the last 20 years in the nutritional status of the Indian population. This results not only from changes in food intake but also from socio-economic factors, increased availability of portable water, lower morbidity and improvement of health facilities.

In a chat with Pharmabiz, Rajakumari said, it should be part of the critical agenda of the government to ensure that every citizen has access to dietary supplement products which supplement the diet to provide the nutrition over and above regular food. Nutrition care, which forms an integral part of preventive healthcare,   is undergoing a transformation in India. Now, food alone is unable to fully serve the nutrition needs of the body. Dietary supplements including fruits like apple can provide sufficient nutrition to the body.  While good health is the ultimate objective of nutrition, nutrition is the vital component of health, she said.

“S Lakshmi Narayanan, Secretary of APMA said, “our country’s paradox in the socio-economic blends gets manifested by the nutrition and metabolism related diseases pattern.  Innovation and continued emphasis on R&D in both neutraceuticals and pharmaceutical industry in India hold the key for a healthy future of our country. Scientists in government, academic and private sectors need empowerment to focus on the special needs of our growing societal needs”.

According to a paper submitted by the research scientist, R Rajakumari, in India nearly 20% of the total population and 44% of young children (below 5 years of age) are under nourished. These figures are higher than that of the poorer Sub-Saharan African countries.  Iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy accounts for one-fifth of maternal deaths in India and prevalence of this deficiency in women has alarmingly increased from 52% in 1998 to 56% in 2006. Iodine and vitamin A deficiencies are still above the WHO specified desired levels. Annually, as many as 0.3 million children succumb to vitamin A deficiency related diseases. The impact of this shortage, is a productivity loss of around one percentage point of India’s GDP, the research paper says.

 Quoting statistical data, she said the lower middle class and the upper class population in the country have enough purchasing power, but probably low awareness about their nutrient requirements that are needs in addition to the basic needs. In fact, there are 340 million in our population (30% in urban and 34% in rural areas) who consume more than the recommended levels of dietary fats and could be the largest contributor in making India the future cardio-vascular and diabetes capital of the world.

The concept, “dietary supplements” is in its infant stage with several developed countries having defined it only in last 15 years. Whereas, India has defined it in the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) of 2006, but, the rules are not completely framed. Of the global dietary supplement market of USD 117 billion (INR 5148 billion), India has less than 1% share and is estimated to be around INR 44 billion in size. The three broad categories within dietary supplements are functional foods, functional beverages and neutraceuticals.

In India, the market for neutraceuticals is unfavourable because there are some impediments to effectively tap this market which are high prices of dietary supplements, lack of credibility of the benefits and the non-implementation of regulatory framework. Lack of regulations to govern dietary supplements act as a deterrent for large foreign players to enter Indian market.

The APMA’s research study puts forth some suggestions to overcome the above mentioned impediments and urged the authorities to take initiatives such as rules to govern quality and claims of neutraceuticals products, encouragement of R&D and exploration of the potential of Public Private Partnership (PPP).