India: Challenges and Opportunities

India: Challenges and Opportunities
by Bhushan Karnik, Ph.D.

TheIndian natural products industry is an emerging market in need of qualitystandards and regulatory guidelines, as well as recognition and endorsement bygovernment bodies. Organizations such as the Health Foods and DietarySupplements Association of India (HADSA) are working to promote awareness andregulation among industry businesses, consumers and legislators.

In India, health care products are manufactured by threegroups of businesses. The first group consists of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, medicaland diagnostic manufacturers, which make products designed for use intraditional systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and homeopathy. It has an estimated annual turnover of $6 billion and isgrowing at approximately 10 percent per annum.The second group is comprised offood manufacturers and has an annual turnover of $4 billion and a growth rate of4 to 6 percent. The third group, an emerging sector, consists of dietarysupplement, nutraceutical and functional food businesses, as well as businessesthat produce foods for special dietary use. Presently, the third group is anunregulated industry with an annual turnover of $1.2 billion.

Due to a lack of regulation and clear-cut guidelines formanufacturers in the third group, and since regulatory agencies do not encouragethese manufacturers to promote dietary supplements as natural products, but asdrugs, it is very difficult for manufacturers from the third group to competewith manufacturers in regulated markets. Instead of promoting their products asdietary supplements or functional foods, manufacturers from the third group mustmarket their products within the pharmaceutical industry under a drug orAyurvedic manufacturing license.

In 2002, the Health Foods and Dietary Supplements Associationof India (HADSA), International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations(IADSA) and the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) came together toproactively work with the Indian natural products industry and concernedgovernment ministries (the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the FoodProcessing Industry) to create awareness and a platform for exchange of science,technology and regulations, as well as an atmosphere of freedom of choicewhere consumers are free to choose science-based nutraceutical products designedto benefit their health and well-being. The first Health Foods and Dietary Supplement InternationalConference Seminar, organized by HADSA in 2002 with the support of IADSA andNNFA, increased awareness among consumers, the health care industry andregulatory agencies and promoted the creation of a separate, wellrecognized,regulated market for dietary supplements and nutraceuticals within India. And in 2004, HADSA merged its national awareness movement withCSIRs (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), and CFTRIs (CentralFood Technology Research Institute) Annual Joint Indian Nutraceutical Summit inMumbai, India; a subsequent summit was held in New Delhi in 2005. The thirdsummit is scheduled for September 2006 in Mumbai, India, to coincide with therelease of the Indian Food Safety and Standards Bill of 2005, which wasintroduced in the Lok Sabha (Indian Parliament) on Aug. 25, 2005 under BillNo.123 of 2005 (http://mofpi.nic.in/foodsfty.pdf).

Bhushan Karnik, Ph.D., is treasurer of the Health Foods andDietary Supplements Association of India (HADSA), a non-profit industryassociation registered as a public trust in Mumbai that promotes dietarysupplements in India.

The Nutrient Network Foundation (NNF)

Another Indian agency working for improved regulations andrecognition of the Indian natural products industry is the Nutrient NetworkFoundation (NNF), an international non-profit organization created to supportevolving scientific and technological challenges in the changing globalregulatory environment surrounding natural products. NNF is incorporated inNevada and is supported in India by HADSA. The Indian chapter of NNF is beingincorporated within HADSA to work in India.