In a major development aimed at pushing the exports of the Ayush sector, the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) has recently updated and added regulatory data for Ayush products of five more countries for the benefit of the sector. With this addition, the Council has till now developed an extensive database on regulatory procedures from 10 countries, which are bifurcated country and region wise, along with various schemes of government of India meant for promoting exports of herbal and Ayush products.

It is understood that the Council is also working to upload all the information on a sub domain for the benefit of all the companies. Based on the response received from members, the Council has compiled information on regulatory and registration procedures for herbal and Ayush products for another five countries, namely Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, Oman and Cambodia.
 
The Council has already made available details of the process adopted in five countries, namely Tanzania, Philippines, Ghana, Canada and Bahrain. Dr P V Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil informed that based on the proactive response from all the stakeholders, his office has also started the process of assimilating relevant information on the other important export destinations as well to support the industry and ease their troubles.

To address the concerns of the Ayush sector and help the units overcome export hurdles when dealing with regulatory and drug registry process in other countries, the Council had initiated this process over a month back. This strategic move comes after the industry highlighted its plight over the challenges being faced by them while registering herbal products with DDA Nepal and Sri Lanka among others.

The data base consists of regulatory information of the countries like specified guidelines for application for registration of traditional, herbal medicines and food dietary supplements; their requirements for labeling of products; new fees and charges etc. For further enhancing exporters confidence, they are also putting the details of application form required by certain countries for foreign manufacturers good manufacturing practices (GMP) inspection.

In another move aimed at supporting and addressing the issues of the exporters, the Council recently had a high level meeting with the stakeholders in Delhi to gauge and understand their export related queries. Following which several key issues affecting the sector were submitted to the department of commerce and department of Ayush.