New Delhi, April 21 (FN Agency) AYUSH Secretary Rajesh Kotecha said on Thursday that the Centre’s plan to create the AYUSH mark will augment the import of traditional medicines to more than 150 countries. While answering the query by UNI, Kotecha said the AYUSH mark will put all herbal and traditional medicines and ingredients under a standardisation of good manufacturing practices and quality control. “There are many countries who are importing AYUSH medicines under the nutraceutical sector. We have to create a standard for that where the AYUSH mark will help. It will be facilitated by the ISO mark for the import of AYUSH products in more than 150 countries,” he told UNI.
However, there is already a standard label of the World Health Organisation’s GMP which is compulsory for the manufacturers to export the medicines. Besides, there are ISO and egg marks for such manufacturers required to deal in local markets. When asked how the AYUSH mark will be different from existing standardisation labels, Kotecha said the other labels would facilitate the AYUSH mark in putting all herbal and traditional medicine products under one roof. “WHO GMP is primarily used for medicine exports. We are looking beyond that. It (AYUSH mark) will enable people to have a choice in the local markets as well,” he said. The AYUSH secretary also specified that the AYUSH mark will not make the other standard marks obsolete. Kotecha was speaking to the media during a press conference on the second day of the Global AYUSH summit being held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. “More than 28 firms have shared expression of interest with an investment of Rs 6,000 crores in medicine and FMCG sector which will create over 5,000 jobs,” he said.