Both India and the US will work together to promote ayurvedic and herbal products in the US. Senior officials from US and India discussed the issue in detail recently.
Aiming to step up ayurvedic exports to the US, Dr Rajeev Kher, joint secretary, Department of Commerce had a meeting with professor Ikhlas A Khan, director, FDA Programme, NCNPR and Centre for Research in Indian Systems of Medicine (CRISM)-USA. A proposal was made for more interactions, meetings and exchange of dialogs with the US officials and regulatory bodies for understanding the US requirements for herbal product registration.
The meeting also focused on the scope of developing market for traditional medicines in the US. According to Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), “There is a growing need for data on safety and efficacy among drug regulators of the countries around the world. Need of the hour is to improve our understanding on regulatory requirements so that we can penetrate these countries. In the meeting we have expressed our interest in adopting the same style that the Chinese have adopted in the US for promotion of our ayurvedic and herbal products in the US.”
He stressed that there is a need to have more interactions with officials of different countries to help all the players in the trade of ayurvedic products to understand consumer demands and quality parameters in International market and develop methods of production that meet those demands of product quality and efficacy.
Dr Appaji informed that at present, over Rs.42000 crore worth of bulk drugs and modern ayurvedic medicines are exported from India to various countries and of which about Rs.600 crore worth is pure ayurvedic products. This year the exports of ayurvedic products have seen a 20 per cent growth. However there is hope that in the coming financial year it will be over 25 per cent.
“We hope to see more of such meetings so that we can promote responsible trade and commerce of ASU products and help in improving market opportunities for companies that sell these products,” Dr Appaji said.
This meeting was held in Delhi subsequent to the buyer seller meet, organised by Pharmexcil at the 4th edition of the World Ayurveda Congress and Arogya Expo held in Bengaluru from December 9th to 13th. The main objective behind organising the buyer-seller meet was to tap the export potential and the future course of the ayurvedic products in the international market in the coming years.
Dr Appaji, pointed out that the buyer seller meet attracted lot of interest from the international community in having business with the Indian companies. “Though we cannot disclose the business that had taken place during this event, we can assure that we had a positive response from companies. The interest level had gone up like anything with good number of business leads under the belt for many Indian companies.”
The business meet deliberated on many key points that will direct the future course of the export market. Around 180 Indian companies had participated in this buyer seller meet along with over 39 overseas participants from 15 countries. The buyer seller meet was also attended by Michael Mcguffin, president, American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), USA. The overwhelming participation and the subsequent meetings clearly proved the global popularity of ayurveda and associated fields and India's position in it.