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Western pharma become herbal? India's potential influence on the global drug industry
16 Sep 2008
With India emerging as a major player in the global pharmaceutical arena, it is inevitable at some point for someone to ask the question: Will Asia's long tradition of herbal treatments trickle into accepted Western medicines?
As the Economist points out in a recent article, many modern drugs are derived from or inspired by plants that have been used by humanity to treat particular ailments for centuries, if not millennia.
Since the latter end of the 20th century, Eastern medicine has also enjoyed resurgence in popularity by patients with access to information on alternatives to undesirable side effects and additives, or who object to animal testing and experimentation.
The Economist suggested India's herbal medicines, produced from the abundance of herbs and flora found there, could become even more popular as the country gears itself up for major pharma expansion.
This is not idle speculation: the Golden Triangle Partnership (GTP) has been working since 2003 towards boosting the Indian herbal industry by giving it a 21st-century makeover that could, for many, be worthy of a second look.
Supported by the ministry for health and family welfare (Ayush), its research councils will work with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research with a set of main objectives in mind.
These include standardising Ayush products, developing new herbal products that perform better than other products available on the market and promoting quality and safety.
In addition, it wants to make best use of technology in the development of "single and poly-herbal products to make it globally acceptable" and for the improved herbal treatments to be attractive for future development from national and international pharma companies.
The herbal disciplines Ayush is particularly targeting are Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathic. In addition, it has drawn up a list of health issues it sees as priorities.
They include healthy ageing, treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, osteoporosis, infertility, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and cancer.
It seems quite clear GTP intends to bring Indian medicines up to date. According to the Economist, there are more than 80,000 Ayurvedic treatments involving substances derived from about 3,000 plants, some of which are becoming quite rare.
"More than 7,000 firms make herbal compounds for medical use," it states. "Establishing the active ingredients and exactly how they work would thus take some time."
It cites the example of drug company Ranbaxy, which has invested in a research and development unit to investigate the potentials of herbal medicines.
According to the World Health Organisation, the popularity of traditional herbal medicines is ever growing in industrialised nations.
"In Europe, North America and other industrialised regions, over 50 per cent of the population have used complementary or alternative medicine at least once," it states. Moreover: "The global market for herbal medicines currently stands at over $60 billion [£30 billion] annually and is growing steadily."
It also points out that safety is an issue, which only suggests moves by Ayush to standardise and regulate the industry are the right ones if the country wants to make a global success of its traditional health secrets.