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About one lakh hectares of land will be covered under medicinal plants through
direct financial assistance by the year of 2011-12 under the centrally-sponsored
scheme of national mission on medicinal plants at a total outlay of Rs 630
crore.
The scheme, to be implemented through National Medicinal Plants Board, (NMPB)
also proposes to cover another 80,000-100,000 hectares of land by extending
incentives to farmers who may switch over from traditional crops to medicinal
plants. This is apart from the one lakh hectare to be brought under medicinal
plants cultivation directly.
Infrastructure for quality planting material, processing, warehousing,
marketing, quality testing and certification will be promoted through
cooperatives of growers, self-help groups, corporate etc. About 200 nurseries
will be established both in public and private sector, for making available
planting material of certified quality. The interventions are expected to
generate approximately six crore man-days of employment by the year 2011-12,
Board sources said.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has recently approved the scheme worth
Rs 630 crore for this purpose under the 11th Plan. The scheme will help in
developing medicinal plants sector through production of raw material of quality
and standardized constituents for use by the Ayush industry and as well as for
exports and thereby enhance the quality and acceptability of Ayush systems of
medicine and promote export of value added items for a increased share in the
world market, NMPB board official said.
The Board also was given recently Rs 321.30 crore for the existing central
sector scheme, to be implemented during the current Plan period. It would be
spent on R&D for domestication of wild medicinal plants, development of
agro-techniques and post harvest management storage and processing, besides
promoting quality assurance and standardization through development of good
agriculture practices (GAP), good collection practices (GAP) and good storage
practices (GSP) and through development of monographs on medicinal plants.
The Board will help develop, implement and support certification mechanism for
quality standards, GAP, GCP and GSP and promote sustainable harvesting protocols
of medicinal plants from forest areas, and certification there of with this
fund. Survey, inventorisation and documentation of endangered medicinal plants
through periodic surveys and inventorisation, creation of gene banks/seed
orchards to create an authentic source of seed and germ plasm for future will
also be carried out with this fund.
(Ref: Chronicle Pharmabiz dated 28 July 2008)
With a view to ensure quality in the medical devices industry, a largely
unregulated segment, the central drug administration is planning to crack the
whip against the manufacturers running business without licenses.
In order to act tough in this regard and amid reports of unlawful manufacturing
of devices, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has already slapped a
public notice asking them to obtain licenses from the State licensing
authorities and get them approved by the central authority.
"It is understood that certain manufacturers still continue to manufacture
devices belonging to the listed categories without obtaining the requisite
manufacturing licenses from the designated authorities. This activity is
considered unlawful and would attract penalty under the Drugs and Cosmetics
Act," the DCGI said in a notice.
Cardiac stents, drug eluting stents, catheters, intra-ocular lenses, IV cannulae,
bone cements, heart valves, scalp vein set, orthopaedic implants, and internal
prosthetic replacements had been brought under the purview of Drugs and
Cosmetics Act, making it mandatory to get license to manufacture for sale and
distribution in the year 2005.
"The manufacture, import, sale and distribution of the above said categories of
medical devices (including accessories which are implanted with the devices e.g.
screws etc) is prohibited under the Act without a requisite license for import
or manufacture for sale of these devices issued under the said rules," the
notice said.
Meanwhile, the efforts to streamline the sector still remained stuck as the
health ministry opposing the Medical Devices and Regulation Bill 2005 prepared
by the DST, which aimed at creating a regulatory authority among other things.
The health ministry held that it had the jurisdiction over the devices that are
treated as new drugs.
It is also learnt that a core group set up by the DCGI to look into the matter,
met a couple of times, but could not make much progress. However, the CII forum
for medical equipments which largely represented multinationals also has been
roped in to be part of the effort.
On the other hand, indigenous manufacturers seeking adequate representation in
the panel have moved the authorities again to demand separate regulatory agency
to supervise and monitor the medical devices sector and extend incentives to the
local players.
(Ref: Chronicle Pharmabiz dated 28 July 2008)
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