1-Jul-2022: Dr Mansukh Mandaviya chairs Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission conference 2022 and releases 9th edition of Indian Pharmacopoeia
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilisers, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya chaired IPC Conference 2022 and released 9th edition of Indian Pharmacopoeia today at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi today in the august presence of. Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Addressing Medicine Quality for Future’.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya expressed his desire of getting India’s pharmacopoeia acknowledged and appreciated worldwide. He said, “We have become “Pharmacy of the World” by specialising in generic medicine formulation and manufacturing, and by supplying affordable medicine to the world. But we still need to strengthen research in pharmaceuticals sector. Till today, four countries – Afghanistan, Ghana, Nepal and Mauritius- have accepted IP as a book of standards. We should make a roadmap and move forward so that more countries accept our pharmacopoeia,” he noted.
Highlighting the role of government at international level, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said, “As a result of the vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and our work in that direction, the world has started recognising us and giving importance to our work and accepting it. We should focus on how our pharmacopoeia can take advantage of this focussing on international trade and industries based on our strength in indigenous medicines. Pharmacopoeia is important to develop a Swasthya and Samrudh Bharat, to maintain standard quality of our medical products- vaccines, medicines, equipment etc. and to keep an eye on the effect of these medicines on patients.”
Pointing out that India is world’s largest supplier of generic medication and accounts for 20% of the worldwide supply of generics by volume, he further said that during Covid pandemic, India has delivered accessible and affordable vaccines to 150 countries. “While delivering vaccines and other generic medicines to so many countries, we have never compromised with the quality and standards or delivered sub-standard or spurious drugs. India has earned global accolades as a result of this”, he added.
About Indian Pharmacopoeia
The Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) is published by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) on behalf of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India to fulfil the requirements of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940. IP prescribes the official standards for drugs produced and/or marketed in India and thus contributes in the control and assurance of the quality of the medicines. The standards of the IP are authoritative and legally enforceable. It intends to help in the licensing of manufacturing, inspection and distribution of medicines in our country.
IP 2022 contains a total of 92 new monographs including 60 Chemical, 21 Vitamins, Minerals, Amino acids, Fatty acids etc., 3 Biotechnology-derived Therapeutic Products, 4 Human Vaccines, 2 Blood and Blood Related Products, 2 Herbs and Herbal Related Products, and 7 Phytopharmaceutical Ingredient Category monographs. This has led to the total number of 3152 monographs in the current edition of IP. In additions, 12 new general chapters have also been introduced. Several monographs and general chapters have also been revised to update them as per current global requirements and to harmonize with other pharmacopoeias like USP, BP, EP, etc. The harmonization of standards with global standards is expected to help IP getting recognized and accepted in foreign countries.
To mark the occasion of release of the IP, IPC organized IPC Conference 2022 with more than 350 registered participants from top pharma industries, State and Central Drug Regulatory bodies, International Pharmacopoeia bodies (BP, USP), industry bodies like IDMA, BDMA, IPA, etc., and academia. During the conference, presentations were made by subject experts on topics related to pharmacopoeia standards, regulatory and quality expectations, and Indian pharma industry followed by panel discussion.
Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, Dr. Atul Goel, Director General of Health Services, Dr. V. G. Somani, Drugs Controller General India, Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, Secretary-cum-Scientific Director, IPC and other top industry leaders were also present in the meeting.
30-Jul-2021: Standardization of Ayurvedic medicines
The Pharmacopoeia Commission is also responsible to publish and revise Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani official formularies and regulatory compendiums. These published standards become part of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945 for ascertaining the quality standards of Ayurvedic Raw materials/drugs and implemented uniformly across India. So far Government has published Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia containing 645 monographs of single drugs and 203 monographs of compound formulations and the Ayurvedic formulary of India contains 986 formulations.
For standardization of Ayurvedic medicines in the country the Government has established Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy under the Ministry of AYUSH. The prime mandate of the Commission is to publish and revise Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (API), Siddha Pharmacopoeia of India (SPI), Unani Pharmacopoeia of India (UPI) and Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of India (HPI). The Pharmacopoeial standards are basic need to ensure quality, safety and efficacy of Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathic medicines.
14-Dec-2021: Tackling Malnutrition Using Traditional Medicines
Ministry of Ayush is promoting Ayush-based diet and lifestyle and is working in convergence with the Ministry of Women and Child Development to realise the ultimate goal of “Suposhit Bharat” (nourished India).
Ministry has launched a composite nutritional guideline as “Ayush Dietary Advisory for Kuposhan Mukt Bharat” to improve nutritional outcomes in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers with Ayush practices and principles. This guideline has been endorsed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and circulated to the State/UT Governments to address this problem.
Ministry has participated in the Poshan Maah and Poshan Pakhwada celebration under Poshan Abhiyaan organized by the Ministry of Women and Child Development through the National Institutes/Research Councils under the Ministry and Ayush Departments of all the State/UT Ayush Departments.
The National Institutes under the Ministry of Ayush had undertaken various activities such as Poshan Udyan (Nutri-garden) of medicinal herbs, brochure describing various Ayurveda Aahar recipes, Ayurveda Food Expo showcasing various innovative recipes like ready-to-eat healthy foods etc.
Ministry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Women and Child Development on 20.09.2020 to work together on the objective of creating a joint framework for providing holistic nutritional care for women and children.
Ministry of Ayush has also provided inputs to the Department of Food and Public Distribution in revision of nutritional standards fixed under Schedule II of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
4-Jul-2021: Ayurveda Dataset on CTRI Portal will be Launched Tomorrow
Marking a significant step towards worldwide visibility for Ayurveda based clinical trials, the Ayurveda dataset on CTRI Portal will be launched online tomorrow by Ayush Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju. This Ayurveda Dataset of CTRI has been jointly developed by ICMR and CCRAS, Ministry of Ayush. The Minister will also launch four more Portals, all developed by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS).
CTRI is a primary register of Clinical Trials under WHO’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and creation of Ayurveda dataset in CTRI facilitates usages of Ayurveda terminologies to record clinical study meta data based on Ayurveda interventions. Until now the clinical trials in Ayurveda were dependent on terminology borrowed from modern medicine.
Now with the joint efforts of ICMR- National Institute of Medical Statistics and CCRAS, Ayurvedic terminology has become part of CTRI. The key feature of this digital platform is the provision of selection of the Ayurveda Health conditions from drop down of 3866 Ayurveda morbidity codes incorporated from the NAMASTE portal (a portal developed by the AYUSH Ministry) in which morbidity statistics pertaining to Ayurveda has been classified according to International Classification of Diseases standards. It means, now the information, results etc. of Ayurveda Clinical Trials will be available in Ayurvedic vocabulary in the clinical trials registry of India.
Why is the Clinical Registry important?
Clinical trials are being done continuously in the world for new drug discovery, treatment of diseases etc. The problem is that the results of these tests are not publicly available and due to this there is a possibility of not having accurate information about the trials. In view of this, the World Health Organization made it mandatory to create an online registry of clinical trials. In India this work is being done through CTRI and this registry is also part of the World Health Organization registry.
The four more portals that will also be launched tomorrow are AMAR, SAHI, e-MEDHA and RMIS. All of these are primarily developed by CCRAS while RMIS is a collaborative effort of ICMR and CCRAS.