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India-New Zealand FTA (Free Trade Agreements) will strengthen collaboration in the wellness services and will also position India as a global hub for holistic healthcare and may be perhaps the first such inclusion in FTA, said DB Ananta Narayana, CSO, Ayurvidye Trust.
The FTA for Ayush could be a meaningful step only if India pairs it with better clinical evidence, strong quality control and clear branding and education in global markets.
Quoting Ninu Khanna, former CEO, Dabur, Dr Narayana said, “For Ayurveda to go global, there are 3 routes namely scientific, commercial or political. First is the scientific route which is expensive, time consuming and demanding. Dabur and several firms in the sector invested in intellectual competency to generate scientific data on safety and efficacy. Since these products had long history of consumption, only limited safety data was generated. When such data was submitted, it met with acceptance or demand for more data.”
"Often evidence is demanded for Ayurveda products overlooking that these have not gone through a drug development process: phase I to phase IV studies like a pharmaceutical drug. Despite the long history of human consumption, a confirmatory efficacy data should have been acceptable. But since Ayurveda companies could not generate such data, these could not be exported,” he said.
Second, the commercial route got opened with regulations permitting wellness centric supplement usage. At the request of the sector, the then ministry of Indian of Medicine during 1990 to 2000 tweaked the Ayurvedic Drug Regulations to permit labelling of products as per requirements of each country to which they were exported. This opened up exports under dietary supplements regulation or specific health foods for use globally.
The sector started participating in international conferences, nutraceutical exhibitions and health food expos, exhibiting the products. Some time back, Shailaja Chandra, the then secretary, ISM, led a delegation to put up a big exposition at Geneva where there was a 3-day conference of health ministers of over 90 countries. Ayurvedic treatises, books, scientific publications and products were exhibited and explained to healthcare officials of these nations. During this period most Ayurveda industry associations organised regular seminars and workshops discussing about good manufacturing practices, preparation of technical documents similar to registration documents that pharmaceutical companies submit to regulatory authorities. Many companies even MSMEs are preparing technical documents of quality that are accepted internationally.
Third is the political route to push Ayurveda for global acceptance which picked up only in the last decade. The formation of an independent ministry for Ayush will promote Ayurveda through the Indian consulates and embassies globally, and the formation of a traditional medicine centre of WHO will enable recognition for Ayush products.
Even this FTA between India and New Zealand can lead to similar trade agreements with other countries. This is a significant development as Ayush is now recognised as a science of genuine high quality Ayurveda medicines, said Dr Narayana. .
There were considerable obstacles too. For instance, an article in the Journal of American Medical Association showed results of heavy metals analysis in many ayurvedic products sold in US under supplements category. The UK House of Lords committee too designated Ayurveda to lowest level in their uninformed opinion, said Dr Narayana adding that it was leading academicians and industry representatives including the Late Ashok Vaidya who helped turn the tables submitting proof of original classification that provided high value to the health science of Ayurveda, said Dr Narayana.
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