WHO to Set Up a Traditional Medicine Centre in India

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced on November 13, 2020, that it will set up a traditional medicine centre in India.

Highlights

The WHO has made this announcement of establishing the traditional medicine centre during the inaugural ceremony of two future ready Ayurveda institutions. These institutions were inaugurated in Jamnagar and Jaipur by the Prime Minister of India.

About Ayurveda institutions

The Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda was established in Jamnagar. This institution has been conferred  the status of Institution of National Importance. Another institute,  the National Institute of Ayurveda has been inaugurated at Jaipur. This has been designated as the Institution Deemed to be University. Such status for these institutions were provided by the University Grants Commission. The institutes were inaugurated under a part of Dhanteras celebrations.

Traditional Medicine Centre

The new centre of traditional medicines will be established with the support and efforts of WHO.  These centres would help to implement the WHO’s Strategy of Traditional Medicines 2014-23. WHO’s strategy is aimed at developing the policies and action plans to strengthen the role of traditional medicines for universal health coverage. Reports of the National Medicinal Plant Board highlights that the global trade of traditional medicines stands at 120 billion USD. The report further predicts that global trade might grow to 7 trillion USD by 2050.

How the Trade (Import-Export) is regulated?

Several countries have fixed their export and import policies based on United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) regulations. While some of the European countries mandates for drugs to be certified by USFDA for its sale or distribution. However, USFDA does not approve compounded drugs like most of the Ayurvedic drugs.