The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), the highest authority under the Union health ministry on technical matters, has turned down a proposal for mentioning the name of homoeopathic medicines in Hindi on the label indicating the date of manufacturing and expiry.

Earlier, the Hindi Consultative Committee of the Union health and family welfare ministry had made a recommendation in regard to mentioning certain information in Hindi on the label of homoeopathic medicines.  The Hindi Consultative Committee wanted the name of homoeopathic medicines to be mentioned in Hindi along with date of manufacture and expiry.

The proposal was forwarded to a DTAB sub-committee on homeopathy for its examination and consideration.  The sub-committee of DTAB on homoeopathy in its 13th meeting held on 04.04.2013 opined that the name of homoeopathic medicines may be mentioned either in Hindi or English along with date of manufacturer and expiry. It will not be feasible to mention the details of the medicine bilingually on label due to the reasons such as small size of homoeopathic bottles; the names of homoeopathic medicines along with abbreviations are mentioned in homoeopathic pharmacopoeia in English only; and names of homoeopathic drugs are mentioned in "Latin".

However, the DTAB sub-committee on homoeopathy opined, if any homoeopathic drug manufacturing firm intends to mention name of homoeopathic medicines in Hindi, the same should be acceptable by amending the Rule 106A of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.

The Department of Ayush has also requested to place the matter before DTAB for its further recommendation in the matter. The DTAB, at its 68th meeting held on February 16 this year, discussed the issue in detail. After detailed deliberations, the DTAB agreed that it will be difficult to provide bilingual labels on the label of homoeopathic medicines. However, the associations may be advised to encourage the members to mention the name of the formulations or any other detail in Hindi wherever possible.