Govt cites ease of doing business to omit rule against misleading ads for Ayush medicines
NEW DELHI: The Centre has agreed to drop a crucial rule in the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, which was specially introduced to prevent misleading advertisements of Ayush medicines, to promote ease of doing business. Rule 170 was omitted from the Drugs and Cosmetic Act in May.
However, despite experts seeking the reason behind the same, there was no response from the Ayush ministry. In a letter, the Ayush ministry said that the ‘decision for the omission of Rule 170 was a conscious decision, considering a policy of the government to promote ease of doing business.’
The letter was in response to RTI activist Dr KV Babu, who had asked the ministry why such an important rule was omitted. It said the decision was taken by the Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani Drugs Technical Advisory Board in its meeting on March 15, 2021. ASUDTAB advises both the Centre and the state government on technical matters.
It added that on May 25, the matter related to Rule 170 of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 was discussed under agenda item 3, and it had been recommended by the board to proceed with final notification for the omission of Rules 170 and its related provisions mentioned in D&C Rules, 1945. It, however, said that the Pharmacovigilance programme of Ayush has been strengthened across the country and is proactively reporting all such misleading advertisements.
“Therefore, omission of Rule 170 will not in any way compromise with the set goal of curbing misleading advertisement and existing other mechanisms can effectively check the same,” the letter, dated October 3, said.
However, Kerala-based Babu said that despite the claims of the ministry that vigilance against such misleading ads has been strengthened; Yoga guru Ramdev’s Divya Pharmacy ads on “controlling and completely curing diseases like BP, Diabetes, arthritis and asthma” were published in two leading newspapers on September 30.
“It is clear that the ASUDTAB decision of omission of Rule 170 is in keeping with government policy of promoting the ease of doing business in the country, which will help the Ayush pharma industry. Unfortunately, it is at the cost of the health of our hapless citizens,” Babu said.
He said that Rule 170 was inserted in December 2018 following solid recommendations from the 108th Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health in March 2018. The committee believed that the existing laws were insufficient to prohibit misleading advertisements and to strengthen the effective regulations of AYUSH drugs, Rule 170 was inserted.
“It is very unfortunate that the decision of ASUDTAB will overturn the recommendations of the Standing Committee. This will be disastrous for the health of the citizens,” said Babu.
What does the Act say?
The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954, was enacted by the Centre to prohibit the advertisement for certain purposes of remedies alleged to possess magic qualities and to provide for matters connected in addition to that.
It further said this act applies to all drugs, including Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani drugs and Homoeopathy drug