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SKCDA urges govt to bring directorate of Ayurveda under Karnataka FDA
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Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru
December 18 , 2024
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The Suvarna Karnataka Chemists and Distributors Association (SKCDA) now sees the need for the directorate of Ayurveda to come under the purview of the drugs control department which has now been renamed as the Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Commissioner, State Food & Safety of Karnataka, will be in charge of FDA. The Association is insisting for testing of all Ayurveda medicines at the labs of the state drugs control department. Already the homeopathic medicines are under the purview of Karnataka drug control department.
Directorate of Ayurveda has only one drug testing lab. The drug control department has three labs at Bengaluru, Hubballi and Belagavi for testing allopathy medicines. Now SKCDA highlights the need for better compliance in the Ayurveda sector. It calls to shift all Ayurveda drugs testing to drugs control department to streamline safety protocols, enhance quality assurance, and align traditional medicine with broader pharmaceutical regulations under a unified administrative framework.
In a communication to the state government, Ashokswamy Heroor, chairman, Legal Cell, SKCDA presses for bringing the Directorate of Ayurveda under the new Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA). This is aimed at strengthening quality assurance in herbal medicines.
We see this shift is crucial to ensuring that ayurvedic and herbal medicines meet rigorous standards of quality, efficacy, and safety. Currently, concerns exist about substandard herbal medicines entering the market, which could undermine consumer trust and potentially harm public health, he added.
By integrating ayurvedic regulation under the FDA, the sector would benefit from standardized testing, stricter oversight, and streamlined compliance protocols, ensuring that herbal medicines are consistently of high quality and free from contaminants or adulteration. This move would also align traditional medicine with modern regulatory practices, fostering greater transparency and accountability. Earlier, the manufacture and sale of ayurvedic medicines was under the purview of the state drug control department. Later, it was subsumed under Ayurveda department. As of now ayurvedic medicine production and sale is going on without any regulations. Due to this, substandard and spurious medicines are increasing in the market, said Heroor adding that the Ayurvedic Drug Testing Lab should be brought under the governance of the drug control department.
Moreover, there is adequate infrastructure of advanced lab testing facility which is NABL accredited in the Karnataka drugs control department at Bengaluru. The two other test labs in Hubballi and Belagavi have the capacity and related equipment installed to test ayurvedic medicines, he said.
Therefore, SKCDA is requesting that the production and sale of ayurvedic medicines should be brought under the jurisdiction of the State Drug Control Department so that high quality ayurvedic medicines are made available to the people, said Heroor.
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