THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first trial of ayurveda medicines on animals for checking the safety of the drugs will be launched in the state soon, according to Health Minister V S Sivakumar. The clinical trial has been made mandatory for granting licence to manufacturers and selling patented and proprietary medicines.
The trial, which will be the first in the country for ayurveda products, will be conducted at CARe KERALAM Ltd (Confederation for Ayurvedic Renaissance- Keralam Limited), a public limited company established at Koratty in Thrissur, the Minister told the Assembly during question hour.
Sivakumar said a piece of comprehensive legislation would be enacted for clinical trials of ayurveda products. He also said that the government had issued orders to conduct clinical trials in the Ayurveda College here,
Tripunithura Ayurveda College and VPSV Ayurveda College, Kottakkal. Responding to a question about spurious drugs and quality of drugs, Sivakumar said that there was a separate unit for testing ayurveda products at the Drugs Testing Laboratory. Apart from this, there will be separate units for testing ayurveda drugs in the five laboratories that are coming up in various parts of the state.
About the availability of medicinal herbs, the Minister said only 30 to 40 per cent of medicinal plants
were available in the state and the rest came from other states. In order to overcome this, the government has initiated a programme to cultivate such plants in schools.