Care Keralam’ the Ayush cluster formed in Kerala will be operational in the state from October this year. This is the first cluster project of Ayush department initiated by a state government to become functional in the country. According to sources, either President of India or the Prime Minister will inaugurate the unit.

Care Keralam, the Special Purpose Vehicle formed to function the cluster, will be acting as a standardization unit of inputs for ayurvedic medicines. The department of Ayush has sanctioned `10 crore towards setting up the project and out of which an amount of `6 crore was already released to the SPV so far, said Dr Joy Varghese, CEO of the cluster.

The cluster unit, meant for a comprehensive development of Ayurveda, includes five buildings, one godown, one museum, one analytical laboratory, one process validation lab, one toxicology lab and one common production centre. The area of the buildings comes around 60,000 square feet. All equipment will be erected in this month and technical and administrative staffs will be recruited shortly. Soft gel capsule machine, hard gel capsule machine, machines for tableting and coating, and blister packing machines are to be erected in the unit.

The unit that is set up at the KINFRA Park in Koratty in Thrissur district will have all the state-of the-art facilities for testing and analysis, process product validation, safety study and manufacture. For the smooth functioning of the unit, Care Kerala has engaged in a tie-up with the Kerala Health University. When the cluster will become operational, it can cater to the whole of Kerala. In the second phase of development, the production area will be increased.

Dr Joy said currently the cluster has 53 manufacturing units as members from whom an amount of `1.7 crore were collected to buy the land. In another three months, the membership will go up to 150, it is expected. He said all the member units have GMP facilities. In Kerala, according to him, 80 per cent of the ayurvedic industrial units are having good manufacturing practice facilities. Sixty per cent of the ayurvedic industries in Kerala are located in and around of Thrissur. The cluster is very close to the air port also.

While speaking to Pharmabiz, the CEO said, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, Kerala Infrastructure Development Agency (KNFRA) and ayurvedic product manufacturers and service providers have arrived at a consensus to form a consortium with the objective of jointly promoting Kerala as a global destination for sourcing ayurvedic products and services with internationally acceptable standards. As a result of it, Care Kerala was formed up.

The main objective of the cluster is to upgrade the process technology of ayurvedic drugs, so as to compete in the International market, to develop research & development centre in the field of ayurvedic medicine, to promote the exports of ayurvedic products and to reduce all bottlenecks involved in the present export scenario of ayurvedic product, to develop a Centre for Excellent for Research in Ayurveda, approved by International and National Organizations like WHO, Department of Science & Technology Government of India etc, to establish a Kerala-brand of ayurvedic products, to provide training to the manufactures of ayurveda products, on the importance of safety, quality and efficacy in medicinal plants, to protect ayurveda from adulteration and lowering of standards in both manufacturing and treatment and to protect the IPR of ayurvedic manufacturers, and to provide plantation facilities to farmers by supplying free or subsidized seedlings in order to reduce threats for both medicinal plant resources and local community that depend on them.