According
to world health organization (WHO) report, 70 % of the global population still
relies on traditional medicines based on herbal products for their wellbeing
and primary healthcare particularly in 3rd world and emerging economy.
Prevalence of Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated the use of traditional
medicines over the past 1 year and vindicated the confidence the mankind has on
its traditional Ayurvedic and Chinese medicines in their own dominant society.
Even WHO as part of its global healthcare strategy (Traditional complementary
medicine strategy 2014-2023) has a roadmap of integrating these traditional
medicines as part of universal health coverage.
Market
survey reports have shown that big Ayurvedic companies in India have boosted
their sales by over 400 % over the last year, Similar trend was observed in
China wherein their local traditional medicines sales have spiked over the last
year. The rise of startups in traditional medicines during the Covid-19
pandemic is another indicator of opportunity that exist in these complementary
medicine space, which was predominantly dominated by allopathic medicines. In
the early days of pandemic, Chinese authority had administered traditional
Chinese medicines to 90 % of patients in hospitals undergoing Covid-19 treatment
to build immunity among the patients as there was no clear-cut clinical
protocols during the early days. It was proposed to be an alternative to boost
immunity to self-fight the covid virus, Taking the cue even Govt of India
initiated various local programs & protocols asking the citizens to pursue
various ayurvedic formulations and household remedies to improve immunity.
Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the global adoption of traditional medicines
and very soon will also seen as an acceptance as mainstream medicines. Advisory
by WHO to pursue these traditional medicines along with conventional medicines
has ensured that global demand for such medicines will only grow from here. An
interesting perspective from millennials where the consumption of such traditional
medicines was more focused towards skincare and beauty, but today the herbal
drugs opportunity has gone beyond skincare and beauty towards immunity and
basic wellness.
As the
adage, ‘With bigger power comes bigger responsibility’; So is true with bigger
opportunity comes bigger responsibility. There is big onus on the traditional
medicines industry to adopt proper regulations and enforce all modern
analytical and clinical techniques to validate these medicines with scientific
rigor and research methodology to help build trust and confidence that these
medicines are not only safe and effective but also without any side effects.
Routine pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacovigilance studies of every
herbal Ayurveda formulation will not only ensure its global acceptance amidst
regulation but will confirm with evidence that these traditional medicines
resulted in well being not just based on the aspect of faith, but with full
scientific proof.
There are
more than 120 distinct phytochemicals from 1100 different herbal plants used in
traditional medicines. As these plants grow in different geographical region
the soil content especially with varying nutrients, heavy metals and various
pesticides that’s used for cultivation varies significantly. For eg; Alpinia
galangal (type of ginger) grown in different part of the country can have
different concentration of heavy metal as well pesticide residues, Thus it
becomes imperative that the plant and its extract be analyzed for heavy metals,
pesticides and various type of aflatoxins to ensure good and consistent quality
which would result in better efficacy of finished herbal drug. Analytical
instruments like Pinnacle AAS, or Nexion ICPMS are extensively used by drug
manufacturer to test for heavy metals in raw plants as well as finished herbal
drug. In order to validate the presence of pesticides with extreme low level of
detection, as these pesticides are highly carcinogenic, Qsight LCMS and Clarus
GCMS are used by different drug manufacturers to detect these in the herbal
drugs. Such detailed scientific analysis by drug manufacturer will not only
validate the safety and quality of these finished herbal drugs but will ensure
they pass the stringent regulations and norms setup by different regulatory
bodies to ensure consistent and quality drugs. The government will also have to
play a special role in incentivizing farmers to grows such herbal plants to
ensure uniform raw material supply chain and thereby ensuring no adulteration
can creep into the process. Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the spurt of
conventional allopathic medicines along with the thrust for finding novel
vaccines, but it has paved a way for traditional ayurvedic/Chinese medicines to
find new roots and look for bigger share in healthcare market. We have to
realize once traditional medicines and gets world-wide acceptance, Its not to
compete with conventional allopathic medicines but to complement in ensuring
good health and total wellbeing.
