Page 48 - Proceedings of The Fifth Meeting of Indigenous Medicine in the Mekong Basin

42

also displayed colorfully. Hundreds of herbarium sheets are also prepared to
disseminate the knowledge of medicinal plants.

13. Manufacturing of Traditional Medicine
The government is giving impetus to develop Traditional Medicine
systematically up to international standard and to manufacture potent and efficacious
Traditional Medicines based on scientific evidences and practices.
Traditional Medicines have been manufactured by both public and private
sectors. The Department of Traditional
Medicine is responsible for manufacturing in
the public sector and owns two pharmaceutical
factories. Medicines are produced according to
the national formulary and Good Manufacturing
Practice (GMP) standards. These two factories
manufacture twenty one kinds of Traditional
Medicine powders which are provided free of
charge to be dispensed in public Traditional
Medicine facilities, and the factories also
produce 12 kinds of Traditional Medicine drugs
in tablet form for commercial purpose.
The private Traditional Medicine industry is also developing and undertaking
mass production of potent and registered medicines according to the GMP standard.
Some private industries are now exporting traditional medicines to neighboring
countries. Due to the encouragement and assistance of the government and the
manufacturing of standardized traditional medicine under GMP, public trust and
consumption of TM have greatly been enhanced. There is a progressive increase in
demand for traditional medicine in both rural and urban areas.

14. Traditional Medicine Laws
Traditional Medicine Council Law – The Myanmar Indigenous Medicine Act
was enacted in 1953. The State Traditional Medicine Council, a leading body
responsible for all the matters relating to traditional medicine, was formed according
to that law.
In the year 2000, the Myanmar Indigenous Medicine Act was replaced by the
Traditional Medicine Council Law. One of the objectives of the law is "to supervise
traditional medicine practitioners for abidance by the rule of conduct and discipline".
At present there are 6752 registered traditional medicine practitioners under the
Traditional Medicine Council Law.
Traditional Medicine Drug Law – The Government has promulgated the
Traditional Medicine Drug Law in 1996, in order to supervise systematically the
production and sale of traditional medicine in the country. One of the objectives of
the law is "to enable the public to consume genuine quality, safe and efficacious
traditional drugs". According to the law, all the traditional medicine drugs produced in
the country have to be registered and the manufacturers must have license to
produce their products. There are more than 10,000 registered TM drugs and the
license for production is issued to more than 2000 manufacturers.
Manufacturing of traditional medicine drugs must follow the good
manufacturing practice. The department also supervises and monitors the
advertisement of traditional medicine drugs.