Indian systems of medicine to be registered in the US

New Delhi, Aug 21 (UNI) India's holistic health systems, Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani can now register its herbal medicines and food supplements in the United States besides disseminating information about the systems.

Collaborative reseach and dissemination of information on the three Indian systems of medicine can be undertaken under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Ms Anita Das, Secretary, Department of Ayush, and Prof Larry Walker, Director, National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR), University of Mississippi, US.

Under the MoU, an India-US Centre of Excellence for trilateral cooperation for collaborative research and advocacy for Indian systems of Medicine (CRISM) will be set up for collaboration between the Department of Ayush, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), Jammu and National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR), University of Mississippi, US.

NCNPR has an institutional interface with US FDA which will facilitate Indian ayurveda, siddha and unani companies to get their herbal medicines and food supplements registered on the basis of Common Technical Dossiers to be prepared jointly by CRISM with their Indian partners.

Prof Walker and Prof Ikhlas Khan of NCNPR will be the director and co-directors from the US side and the Director, IIIM, Jammu, Adviser (Ayurveda), Department of Ayush and the Director, Central Council for Research in Unani medicine, will be the Director and co-directors from the Indian side, according to a release of the Department of Ayush here.

The progress of collaborative research and advocacy will be jointly monitored by Secretary (Ayush) and Prof Walker of NCNPR.

Action plans for this joint centre for 2008-09 and 2009-10 gave been prepared and will be jointly funded by the department and NCNPR.

UNI SD RL HT1910