The Tamil Nadu Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani Drugs Manufacturers Association (TASUDMA) in a memorandum requested the state ministry of health and family welfare to induct a Siddha practitioner or manufacturer as expert member in the newly constituted Technical Advisory Committee (Expert Committee) for new products endorsement.

The government has issued an order (G O (D) No 846/19/8/2010) constituting an Expert Committee for considering drug license applications for new products endorsement in September. The committee comprised no member from Siddha community.

The Association said even though the Ayush circular K11027/2/2007 mentions only about an Ayurveda expert, in the case of Tamil Nadu if a member from Siddha practitioners is included in the committee, it will be supportive for the growth of the system. Government has formed the expert committee without inducting a member from TASUDMA or a technical expert from the Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research (CTMR), Chennai, but included a woman ayurvedic doctor as non-official member who is neither a formulation expert nor a manufacturer.

According to Siddha practitioners and manufacturers, the government could have utilized the expertise of the CTMR had they included a staff of the Centre as member to the expert committee. CTMR has been giving training to the physicians of Indian Medicine on technical and practical sides for decades and conducting so many workshops and seminars sponsored by Ayush department. But the state health authorities pretended to be ignorant about these developments in the state.

Tamil Nadu is hailed as the hub of Siddha medicines and has a large number of practitioners of the system and it would be helpful to have Siddha and Unani experts also in the committee, the memorandum of TASUDMA said. Since the committee requires a lot of manufacturing experts, physicians of both Siddha and Unani with industrial backgrounds may be able to supplement suggestions to the functioning of the committee. According to the memorandum, Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani drugs, especially proprietary products (Innovative dosage forms and packaging), have higher acceptance, so the committee can accord fast track licensing based on the ‘Proof of Concept’ submitted by manufacturing companies as per the suggestion of Ayush department.

The association members said the exclusion of Siddha or Unani or Homeopathy doctors from the expert committee is a big shame to the ISM industry of Tamil Nadu as it has a heritage in the practice of Indian healing systems. With the help of Ayush Department, a cluster for ISM industry is round the corner. TASUDMA and CTMR have taken the initiative for setting up a cluster in the state. But the ISM commissionerate did not consider any of their members to the committee.

The expert committee comprises six members including the non-official member. Besides the ayurvedic doctor, the five members are from the department only. All these members have no background in manufacturing side or the system’s technical side, members of Siddha community alleged.