The status of Ayurvedic medications from the point of legislation should be approved for their popularization in Ukraine, in particular, it should be determined if they are medicines, participants of a roundtable held at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday said. President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (IPMA) Dr. Ramanan Unni Parambath Menon said that at present, Indian Ministry of Yoga and Ayurveda (the Ministry of AYUSH) is attempting to make regulatory agencies of different countries to recognize Ayurvedic medications. “We want that Ayurvedic medications are registered as medications of alternative medicine. We are working on making Ukrainian regulatory agencies to recognize them,” he said.
In turn, President of Euro Lifecare Sanjeev Bhagat said that according to Ukrainian regulatory requirements, currently Ayurvedic medications could be registered only as nutritional supplements, which moderates trust of consumers.
“India has a separate pharmacopoeia for Ayurvedic medications. They are considered medicines, not nutritional supplements. However, Ukraine does not have alternative medicine and the country does not have special rules for these medications, and they are registered as nutritional supplements. This has a lot of drawbacks,” he said.
Bhagat said that when Ayurvedic medications are imported as nutritional supplements 20% VAT and 10% duty are imposed on them, while 7% VAT is imposed on medicines. “The price of the medications becomes higher, and it is not interesting for us to bring them,” he said.
Commercial Director of Organosyn Ltd. Svitlana Sichkar said that Ayurvedic medications are often registered in Ukraine as nutritional supplements. “The situation is somewhat double: on the one hand, registration is not required [for Ayuvedic drugs] and this saves time for the company. We can immediately represent the product in the market. At the same time, there is a certain distrust of nutritional supplements and there are restrictions on indications for their prescription. These drugs cannot be included in some mandatory medication protocols,” she said.
At the same time, Sichkar said that recently the trust of doctors in Ayurvedic drugs is growing: “Doctors are ready to prescribe these drugs if they see that the product is really effective.”
APPROVED, AYURVEDIC MEDICATIONS, POPULARIZATION, STATUS
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