Ayurvedic Drugs Cannot Claim Treatment of Cancer in Ads : Ministry

Manufacturers of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs cannot claim treatment of cancer, TB, diabetes and infertility besides a number of other conditions, according to a proposed government law.

The AYUSH Ministry has come out with draft rules which seek a ban on any advertisment by manufacturers of these drugs in relation to treatment of 37 conditions like appendicitis, baldness and greying of hair, blindness, bust creams or breast development.

"Manufacturer of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs or his agent acting in his behalf shall not take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any drug in terms which suggest or calculated to lead to the use of that drug for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, disorder or condition," the draft rules said.

The other diseases whose treatment manufacturers cannot advertise change of foetal sex, chikungunya, complexion or fairness, diabetes mellitus, dengue, height enhancement, HIV AIDS, sexual power, desire or performance enhancement amongst others.

As per the draft rules, the manufacturers of the Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs "may" advertise the drug as per the contents recorded by the state licensing authority or drugs controller.

The draft rules, put on the Ministry's website for public comments, said the application for doing advertisement of these drugs will have to be first submitted to the authority.

The application should specify claims such as textual references, rationale from the authoritative books and scientific evidence regarding safety, efficacy and quality of the drug.

The Centre can direct the state government to "ban, suspend or cancel" advertisements of such drugs, which are found to be "not appropriate", the draft rules said.

A senior AYUSH Ministry official told PTI that there are certain diseases which one cannot advertise because of ethical issues under Medical Council of India (MCI).

"Apart from those diseases, one can advertise but only after duly bringing it to the notice of state licensing authority and letting it record it.

"Either the authority will say it is outrageous, falsifying of information or misleading or it might seek clarifications or simply record. This is basically an effort to try and curb the rampant misleading claims that happens in the market," the official said.