Herbal remedies are age-old. It is now being acknowledged that in many ways they are superior to allopathic drugs such as better bio-absorption, holistic action on the body and lower side effects. Their weakness, however, has been the inconsistency of their effectiveness.

There are several reasons for this such as lack of quality control over the inputs, non-standard dosages, applications varying from practitioner to practitioner and very little rigourous research and clinical testing which could lead to repeatability and consistency in administration and effects.

These weaknesses have been successfully addressed by the Himalaya Drug Company (the company was started in Dehradun, in the lee of the Himalayas), founded back in 1930 by naturalist M. Manal. While establishing Himalaya, Mr. Manal was clear about one thing. He wanted to bring Ayurveda to society in a contemporary form, with the formulations subjected to modern pharmacological, toxicological and safety tests.

Mr. Manal's vision was concretised by his son, Meraj, who is the current Chairman of the company. At Bangalore, where it moved in 1975, Himalaya has established the country's first GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) approved herbal manufacturing facility with a capacity of one crore tablets per day and the largest tablet coating facility in India. This is backed by a top class R&D center manned by over 40 scientists and equipped with the latest botanical, chemical and pharmacological testing facilities. This center has built up by now a comprehensive data bank on over 200 species of medicinal plants. There is, however, much more work to be done since India alone has over 15000 identified species of medicinal plants and herbs, many of which are in danger of becoming extinct.

According to Dr. S. K. Mitra, Executive Director (Research and Technical Services), the clinical studies conducted by Himalaya are similar to those undertaken for allopathic medicines. They are multi-phase, based on the Helsinki Declaration and the protocols adhere to WHO and GCP standards and have the approval of Ethical Committees (for animal and human trials). All clinical trials are double blind randomized trials. The studies are published in leading medical journals of the world.

The current focus of Himalaya's R&D efforts is on herbal drugs for cancer, tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue, viral disorders and chronic and debilitating disorders among women.

Himalaya has now a portfolio of 35 pharma products, the most prominent being Liv.52, which was launched in 1955 and is today the global leader in the hepatoprotective - lipotropic segment. It alone accounted for Rs.65 crores of Himalaya's total pharma sales of Rs.180 crores last year.

But there is tremendous scope for expansion. Although we pride ourselves on our Ayurveda, the Indian contribution to the global herbal remedies market of $62 billion is a meagre $1 billion. Himalaya plans to introduce four new pharma products per year from henceforth. Incidentally, while the total pharma market in India grew by 8 percent last year, Himalaya's pharma sales grew by 25 percent.

Himalaya has also taken significant steps to ensure uniformity of the raw material used in its products. This has been accomplished by eschewing "collected" naturally growing material from forests and sourcing instead, cultivated material from captive and contract farms. Control can be exercised over cultivated produce in terms of using standard planting stock agronomic procedures and harvesting methods. Toxic elements in the raw material are minimized by ensuring pure organic farming sans the use of pesticides. The productivity from organized cultivation is far higher than by spontaneous growth in the wild.

"We have already reached a level of 75 percent of our raw material sourcing from cultivated stock", says President & CEO, Ravi Prasad, "and will soon be hitting 100 percent. About a year and a half ago we started extension work in several adopting tribal villages in order to get them to cultivate herbs. Contract farming of herbs is becoming increasingly popular in India since the prices are much more stable than for cereals, fruits and vegetables. On any single day, we get about 20 enquiries from prospective herbal farmers". Another way Himalaya ensures uniformity and high quality of the raw material going into its formulations is by captive processing of the plant material into granules. This is done at a centralized facility in New Delhi. This processing, in fact, is the core intellectual property of the company.

In the last few years, with a view to rapidly expanding its topline, this conservative company has branched out into several allied fields - all based on herbs - such as animal care products, pure herbs, "softer" pharma products (taken by self-medication), health supplements and personal care items. The Indian market for herb based personal care products is now around Rs.1200 - 1500 crores per annum and for soft therapies about Rs.2000 - 2300 crores per annum.

This is a highly competitive market requiring a totally different approach from selling medicines. To cope with this Himalaya inducted a veteran from the FMCG world, Soumitro Banerji, who has been designated as Executive Vice President, Consumer Products. Mr. Banerji teed off very successfully with the Ayurvedic Concepts campaign of personal care products for Himalaya and has now made a splash with two health products - Honey and Chyavanaprasha. He is also hopeful of substantial exports of these products to the Middle East, Europe and the U.S.

Last year's break up of sales was pharma products - Rs.180 crores; Consumer care products - Rs.60 crores; Health supplements - Rs.20 crores; Animal care products - Rs.10 crores and exports - Rs.30 crores. Mr. Ravi Prasad expects the gross sales to grow by 25 percent per annum in the next few years and, five years from now, the total sales will be split equally between pharma and other products.

The company has recently acquired 200 acres of land at Bidadi near Bangalore where it intends to set up a much bigger research and manufacturing facility. This will conform to all the regulatory guidelines of the First World. Involving an investment of around 165 crores, the Bidadi unit is expected to be ready in another five years from now.