The manufacturers of ayurvedic medicines in Kerala have urged the Union government to establish an Ayush Industrial Park in Kerala on the lines of Pharma Park for allopathy.

A meeting of the manufactures of Ayurveda medicines wanted the state government to identify suitable land for the Park either in Idukki or Wayanad district and declare the area as Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for Ayush.  The meeting also wanted the state government to take the industry’s demand to the central Ayush ministry and do follow up actions. The meeting was held in Thrissur last week under the auspices of Ayurvedic Medicine Manufacturers Organisation of India (AMMOI) and it took a decision to support the government in identifying land and developing infrastructure facilities.

Mobilising support from the member units, AMMOI has submitted memoranda to the central and state governments in which it was stated that the Industrial park would include treatment centres, research centres, laboratories, manufacturing units, medicinal plant estates, storage facility, sales depot, etc. This will enable to bring all facilities required for the preparation of a drug under one umbrella and that would help all industrial units.

Briefing Pharmabiz, Dr D Ramanathan, secretary of the organisation says, “although Ayurveda is the most popular and significant traditional medicine of the country, Kerala is known as the original land of the system. More than 850 Ayurveda manufacturing units are here, but they are fragmented and most of them are small scale units. Due to financial problems and business crisis, several units are closed down every year. AMMOI wants to help all the manufacturers by bringing them under one umbrella and provide all technical support. If a pharma industrial park is established, it will become a blessing not only for the stakeholders, but also for the system itself”.

The industry also wants a permanent solution for the paucity of raw material.  Several classical drugs cannot be prepared due to shortage of raw material. Apart from Pharma Park, government should identify separate land for growing medicinal plants in huge quantities to cope with the present and future demands. Dr Ramanathan said there are remedies in Ayurveda for various types of diseases, but the industrial units are not in a position to manufacture all those classical drugs because of lack of support facilities. Development of tools including gadgets for effective and independent diagnosis and for surgical aspects of Ayush using modern approaches and engineering technology is also the need of the hour.

The speakers said it is high time the government established a working relationship with UN agencies like WHO, UNICEF, UNDP etc to bring up the age old herbal treatment to international level. They said since a separate ministry has been formed at the Centre, it should take initiative to send one representative from Ayush sector to the World Health Organisation. They reminded that China has representative and office in WHO headquarters.