A conglomerate of manufacturers of ISM drugs in Tamil Nadu has sought the assistance of Kerala Ayush Cluster, ‘CARe Keralam’, for technical support to pass the certification processes of their finished products.

It is learnt that the Ayush industry has requested for support from CARe Keralam because of the lukewarm attitude of the department of Indian System of Medicines (ISM), Government of Tamil Nadu, in supporting the Ayush industry.

The team of industry leaders, majority of them are ayurvedic manufacturers, visited CARe Keralam recently and held discussions with its executive director, Dr Joy Varghese. The group was led by the chairman of the Indian Drugs Manufacturers Association –TN Chapter, M Rajaratinam.

According to Dr Joy Varghese, the industry leaders from Tamil Nadu have approached Kerala Ayush Cluster for quality testing purposes for their products. Consortium of Ayurvedic Renaissance Keralam Ltd (CARe Keralam), would provide all possible support to the Ayush industry in the neighbouring state because the unit’s potential for technical support is huge. Process of clinical trials, toxicology studies, analytical studies and all other tests can be conducted in the state-of-the-art laboratories of the cluster. It has analytical laboratory, process validation lab, toxicology lab and common production centre.

The production centre comprises soft gel capsule machine, hard gel capsule machine, machines for tableting and coating, and blister packing machines. All these facilities can be utilised not only for ayurvedic products, but also for allopathic drugs, he said.

Sources from ISM industry said the department of ISM in Tamil Nadu is adopting an apathetic stance towards the ISM industry and it is not issuing product licences in the wake of some directive on clinical trials by government of India. This decision of the state ISM department has put the industry in trouble. Despite repeated representations of complaints, no action has been taken by the authorities of the health department so far.