Mumbai : The Union health ministry will soon merge the Pharmacopoeial Laboratory for Indian Medicine (PLIM) and the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia Laboratory (HPL) with the Pharmacopoeia Commission of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (PCIM&H), Ghaziabad. The ministry’s effort in this regard is aimed to augment the infrastructural capacity of PCIM&H for standardization of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy (ASU&H) drugs.
PLIM and HPL are the subordinate organizations of Union Ayush Ministry with specific provisions in the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act and Rules as appellate laboratory.
The proposal of merger of PLIM and HPL with PCIM&H was deliberated in a meeting held under chairmanship of Ayush Secretary with Director General Health Services (DGHS) and Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on January 3, 2020.In the meeting it was deliberated that, presently, the infrastructural capacity of PCIM&H is inadequate to deliver the desired outcomes for standardization of work of ASU&H drugs.
It is therefore intended to bring the two appellate laboratories i.e. PLIM and HPL under the umbrella of PCIM&H, Ghaziabad to work in sync with the objective of augmenting the functional capacity to meet the standardization needs of ASU&H drugs and publication of monographs of their quality standards with a focused approach in a time bound manner.
Finally, it was resolved in the meeting that consultation is required for recommendation or concurrence of both ASU Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) and DTAB for making amendment in D&C Rules about the proposed merger of PLIM and HPL with PCIM&H.
Accordingly, member secretary, DTAB had requested all the members of DTAB letter February 14, 2020 for providing the recommendations through mail.
DTAB deliberated the matter and concurred with the decision taken for merging PLIM and HPL with PCIM&H.
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also given its approval to re-establish PCIM&H as subordinate office under Union Ayush Ministry by merging into it PLIM and HPL – the two central laboratories established at Ghaziabad since 1975.
Regulatory provisions for PLIM and associated matters pertaining to Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani drugs are given under Rules 163-A to 166 and for HPL and associated matters pertaining to Homoeopathy drugs are given in rules 3 and 3-A(7) of the D&C Rules, 1945.
PCIM&H is an autonomous organization under the Union Ayush Ministry established since 2010 (Homoeopathy was included in 2014) with a mandate to lay down, revise and harmonize the standards and SOP of ASU&H drugs and publish respective pharmacopoeias and formularies.
