Decision to monitor Ayush advertisements likely to affect sale of several popular proprietary drugs, some products may be withdrawn

The steps taken by the Ministry of Ayush to tackle the menace of misleading advertisements on proprietary and patented ayush products by manufacturers making false claims are likely to affect the sale of several popular proprietary drugs and force several companies to withdraw their products from the market, it is learnt.
With this decision of the government, the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, will become more stringent and the state regulatory bodies are bound to give more focus on enforcement of this Act. The Ministry of Ayush and the advertising self-regulatory body, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), will jointly monitor the advertisements and the enforcement of the Act.
Lately, the Ayush Ministry has signed an MoU with the ASCI to monitor the misleading and improper advertisements on ayush products in print and electronic media. If any objectionable advertisement is found, it will be brought to the notice of the state regulatory bodies for necessary actions.
The initiative of the government is followed by its earlier decision for launching clinical trials for ayush products in order to prove their efficacy before the regulators of foreign countries. Government wants to project the traditional medicines of India in foreign market with firm evidences of efficacy.
Meanwhile, within days of the announcement of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with ASCI by Ministry of Ayush, many of the manufacturers have withdrawn their TV commercials and stopped newspaper ads, said a source from the Union Ayush Ministry.
A lot of proprietary ayush products are marketed through advertisements in print and electronic media. Many products are now under the scanner of various state regulatory bodies who are authorized to initiate action against the violators of DMROA.
“The government is not against giving advertisements for ayush products, but they should be in the proper way and should not be misleading or cheating the people. By giving misleading advertisements, the manufacturers are doing two unwanted things, one is, they are misleading the patients and the second thing is, they are making false claims. All these advertisements are made on proprietary drugs only. There are a list of diseases for which no medicine can be advertised for cure because the efficacy of such medicines have not been proven”, said Dr. DC Katoch, Adviser for Ayurveda in the Ministry of Ayush.
To a query, Dr. Katoch said any medicine can be manufactured and marketed anywhere. But improper and misleading advertisements should not be given. The doctors can prescribe any medicine and the patients can buy it from the pharmacies. Government will not do any harm to any manufacturing company or to any kind of products. Everything should be in the proper way and binding laws.
According to sources, government hopes that the control of advertisements for proprietary medicines will help the ayush remedies get wider acceptability across the globe and stop spurious drugs flooding the market. Only those drugs which produce firm evidences of efficacy will survive and such products will be allowed to market.
He said there are some specific diseases which are listed by the ministry. No manufacturer can give any advertisement for a product claiming cure for such listed diseases.