New branch of medicines to hit market soon

VARANASI: A new domain of medicines from the drug molecules extracted from plants, called as phyto-pharmaceuticals is to hit the market soon in near future. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has notified the draft rules on phyto-pharmaceuticals, amending the Drug and Cosmetic Rules, that will form the basis for a regulatory system to evaluate and get approvals of plant based drugs.
According to regional coordinator, pharmacovigilance, northern region, Dr Anand Chaudhary, these new rules are open for any kind of comment by people. People can comment on the merits and demerits of the new draft by December 7.
According to Dr Chaudhary, several modern researches were done on drug molecules obtained from different plants and herbs known to cure a particular disease as per Ayurved but these researches are gathering dust because of the stringent approval rules for their marketing and uses.
Since the manufacturers of these drugs obtained from molecules of a particular plant are mostly the followers of modern pharmaceutics and the knowledge that a particular plant is useful for a particular ailment comes from Ayurveda, the rules for the clinical trail and approval of these drugs as modern medicine is very tough at present, therefore, a lot of useful drugs have not arrived in the market so far.
However, as the government has notified new set of rules for plant-based drugs, people will be able to get the medicines which are as enriched as texted in ancient Ayurvedic books but formulated with modern techniques using higher science and technology. Government will relax the stringent laws on plant-based medicines.
The only thing that will be emphasised will be toxicity and clinical data. More interesting is to note that these medicines, under the category of phyo-pharmaceutical drugs, can be prescribed by Ayurvedic as well as modern medicine practitioners. Such medicines will come in market in the form of functional food, dietary supplement, traditional medicine and as an approved drug.
"At present Ayurveda practitioners cannot prescribe modern medicine drugs and neither the modern medicine practitioner can prescribe Ayurveda drugs, but as the knowledge, extraction and formulation of he new set of phyto-pharmaceuticals will be based on Ayurveda as well as modern sciences, both pattern of medicine will get the privilege to prescribe these drugs to people," informed Dr Chaudhary. According to Dr Chaudhary, the efforts to prepare draft on phyto-pharmaceutical regulations was started from June 2008 when Dr Surinder Singh, the former Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) was convinced by panel of experts on the need for regulatory framework for scientifically developed herbals to be evaluated and approved as drugs.
Prof Ram Harsh Singh, distinguished professor from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) represented Ayurveda in the committee. It was only in August 2013 that the final text of the gazette notification for phyto-pharmaceuticals was approved.
"This is an important step. India has rich bio-diversity. It is likely to promote improvement of new natural drugs on the basis of Ayurvedic knowledge of medicinal plants, pharma industry can also look forward to new route of drug development from these plants," he informed.
What is Phyto-Pharmaceuticals?
Drugs from plants and other natural compounds are termed as phyto-pharmaceuticals. It is now a significant area of research for the development of new medicines with a sound historical basis.