11 ayurvedic pharmacies to be shut down in HP

Getting tough with ayurvedic pharmacies not fulfilling minimum standards laid out, the Himachal Pradesh government has decided to cancel licences of at least 11 such units, say top official sources.

In the past few months, officials of the state health department visited around 70 ayurvedic pharmacies spread across the state and found eleven units not fulfilling the good manufacturing practice standards (GMP).

The state-wide checkings followed after the government alerted these units in advance to not compromise with GMP standards.

Sources said some of these erring units only carried out the packing of the medicines in Himachal and procured the medicines from neighbouring states. It was also found that some of the products like the popular chavanprash did not have all the 49 ingredients as listed on the labels among other shortcomings. But the sources have not revealed the names of the pharmacies which have been sent notices to close down shop.

Although the exact production of ayurvedic products is not available with officials, there has been a sharp rise in the last few years to open ayurvedic pharmacies due to tax incentives offered by the Central government to open units in the hill state.

The pharmaceutical (allopathic) sector is one of the fastest growing in the state with the country's top brands setting up units in the state. The state produces many types of ras, bhasam,churan, malham, chvanprash and tonics among other ayurvedic products high in demand.

"We have warned the existing units to strictly adhere to the GMP standards set out by the state ayurvedic departments," confirmed V.C.Katoch, Director of state ayurveda department.