Monday, August 01, 2016

Ayurveda to undergo clinical trials before hitting market

Ayurvedic and other alternative medicines openly sold without any regulations in India would soon need to undergo a strict procedure of research and clinical trials before hitting the market.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), under its Draft National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research involving Human Participants, 2016, has proposed that in a bid to ensure patient safety and efficacy, there should be proper research and clinical trials on these drugs.

“Though Traditional Systems of medicine (termed Complementary and Alternate Systems in the West) are known for their long history of safe and effective use, validation of safety and efficacy using scientific and evidence-based methodologies is needed for the purpose of universal acceptability, gaining confidence of practitioners and satisfaction of end users in the products,” said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General, ICMR and Secretary, Department of Health Research (DHR), Union Health Ministry. 

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