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<DIV><FONT size=2>I am a pharmacist having dual interest in pharmaceuticals as
well as medicinal plants so I might lack a bias towards one or the
other. Two years back when I was participating in Supply Side West trade
show in Las Vegas to promote two of our best-selling books - Quality Control of
Herbal Drugs and GMP for Botanicals, I met a few people who laughed at the
suggestion that such GMP norms or quality standards or the associated paperwork
could become official requirement. A few months later the FDA released the GMP
norms to be followed by the herbal manufacturers. I think they will be a lot
more serious about the whole process now. A majority of the manufacturers
however were quite enthusiastic about them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Similarly, certification schemes I firmly believe are here to
stay - like it or not. It's only a matter of time before people get their acts
together and find the benefits (and the painful associated expenses as well) of
such processes. Imagine if pharmaceutical companies started complaining about
the standards they have to follow in the various pharmacopoeias - each would be
making their own medicine in their own way and the consumers would find out the
quality only after consuming the medicines produced by these
manufacturers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>I once heard an apt phrase from a European manufacturer - The
problem with standards is that there are so many of them - which really hits the
nail on the head. I think over a period of time all such standards will coalesce
together to form a comprehensive collection (maybe under government body like
FDA in USA) where the beneficiaries will be the consumers at the first instance
and the complying manufacturers later on. And just like we have nation-wise
pharmacopoeias without much conflict, so too may be the case of herbal
pharmacopoeias.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>J P S Kohli (B. Pharm)<BR>Business Horizons<BR>Pharmaceutical
Publishers<BR>G-59, Masjid Moth, GK-2<BR>New Delhi - 110 048, INDIA</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Ph: 91-921206 1554<BR>Fax: 91-11-5163 7296, 2921
1676<BR>E-Mail: <A
href="mailto:info@businesshorizons.com">info@businesshorizons.com</A><BR>Alternate:
<A
href="mailto:businesshorizons@yahoo.com">businesshorizons@yahoo.com</A><BR>Web
Site: <A
href="http://www.businesshorizons.com">http://www.businesshorizons.com</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>