 "Health, Ayush")
The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (Ayush) will conduct a placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of Ayush drugs to study their efficacy in treating anaemia in women who are not pregnant.
The ministry on Monday tied up with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct the study, which aims at backing up Ayush treatment with scientific and evidence-based research.
“The research will be based on understanding the safety and efficacy of Ayush drugs, such as Punarnavadi Mandura and Drakshavaleha, compared to iron folic acid in treatments for moder-ate iron deficiency anaemia among non-pregnant women of reproductive age group,” the ministry said.
In a placebo-controlled, double-blind trial, participants are randomly assigned to receive either the treatment or a placebo, and neither the participants nor the researchers know who is receiving which treatment until the trial is over. It will help ensure unbiased assessment of the treatment’s effectiveness.
Sensing the growing demand for Ayush treatments, the government is working to make it more mainstream. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked general insurers to engage with the core group of experts formed by the ministry to expand Ayush coverage, remove limitations from their products, and ensure compliance.
The two-year-long study, which will be conducted by the Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under the Ayush Ministry and the ICMR, has got the required approval for ethics and drug standardisation,” Ayush Secretary Rajesh Kotecha said.
“We recently conducted a few pilot projects that showed good results for Punarnavadi Mandura and Drakshavaleha in controlling anaemia,” Kotecha said. “On the basis of those results, we have started work on two initiatives — one with the Ministry of Women and Child Development under Mission Utkarsh and the other with the ICMR on testing Ayush drugs for anaemia treatment,” he said.
More From This Section
The study will include 3,192 partici-pants across eight sites — Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha; Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi; KEM Hospital Research Centre, National Institute of Traditional Medicine, Belagavi; and four All India Institute of Medical Sciences at New Delhi, Bibinagar, Bhopal, and Jodhpur.
The size of the Ayush manufacturing sector grew to $18.1 billion in 2020 from $2.85 billion in 2014-15, according to the latest research report by the Forum on Indian Traditional Medicine under Research and Information System for Developing Countries.
“Currently, the manufacturing sector is around $24 billion. Another study showed that the Ayush service industry is around $26 billion. Therefore, the overall Ayush industry can be around $50 billion as of today,” Kotecha had earlier said.
CCRAS Director General Rabinarayan Acharya said the research would help in establishing equivalence for Ayurveda interventions, leading to the public having a wider choice of drugs for iron-deficiency anaemia.
The ministry has launched five AYUSH-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrative Research across four AIIMS campuses, focusing on cancer, geriatric, and gastrointestinal care.
These centres are being set up to develop integrative health research through integrating Ayush system with conventional biomedicine and modern technology. “We aim to bring integrative healthcare to the people for improved patient outcomes through innovations related to diagnostics, preventive, health promotive, as well as treatment methods,” Kotecha said.
New standard for Ayush health care
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has unveiled the Indian Public Health Standards for Ayush health care facilities. This will help lay down uniform standards and quality infrastructure, human resources, and medicines. Ayush Secretary Rajesh Kotecha said this was the first time in 75 years of India’s Independence that Ayush facilities will have comprehensive public standard guidelines. “By adopting these standards, states and union territories will be able to extend quality Ayush health care services to the deserving population,” he said.
