Kathmandu. Kathmandu: The Government of Nepal has approved the criteria for issuing Skilled Production Practice (GMP) certificate for the purpose of exporting Nepali Ayurvedic and traditional medicines to the international market.

Minister for Health and Population Pradeep Poudel has approved the criteria related to the provision of GMP certificate.

Although various companies in Nepal have been producing medicines of Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine, there was no provision of GMP certificate to export these medicines to the international market legally.

The second code of drug production efficient practice is expected to address this problem. According to this code, manufacturers will have to meet the standards of production process, storage, quality testing, use of modern technology.

Spokesperson at the Ministry of Health, Dr Prakash Budhathoki, said that the manufacturers who meet the criteria of the code will get GMP certificate from the Department of Drug Management, which will open the legal route for ayurveda, homeopathy and other medicines.

Until now, GMP certificates were issued only on allopathic medicines. Traditional medicines could not be exported abroad due to lack of GMP.