Marrying the Traditional Knowledge of Ayurveda with Cutting Edge Science

By: Industry Outlook Team

In an interaction with Industry Outlook, Mohit Malhotra, CEO, Dabur India Ltd. shares his views on the evolution of traditional medicine market and the role played by Dabur India.

Nearly 75 per cent of people in India use some form of traditional medicine, a category that includes Ayurveda. How do you see the current evolution of this market in India? What are the major factors driving its growth?

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in demand for immunity-boosting Ayurvedic Health Care products in India. Ayurveda, with its time-tested remedies and benefits, gained prominence in the minds of consumers who were seeking natural remedies to fight against the illness.

The demand surge led to a significant increase in penetration of Ayurvedic products like Chyawanprash with a growing number of younger consumers adopting this time-tested remedy to build immunity. However, there's still a lot of potential for growth. Chyawanprash penetration, for instance, has doubled in the last one year but still remains at only around 8%. Similarly, branded Honey penetration in India is still at 23%. Ayurveda penetration in India is still low and there is immense scope to increase penetration and bring more non-users into the fold.

At Dabur, we are committed to our Mission of ‘GharGhar Ayurveda’ and have been working towards modernizing and contemporizing Ayurveda to increase its appeal for the millennials and centennial consumers.

How is Dabur positioned in this market?

Dabur has always believed in the benefit of Ayurveda and has been spreading the goodness among our consumers in India with a range of Ayurvedic products. For the past 135 years, we have been developing and successfully introducing products based on Ayurveda to cater to the ever-changing needs of the consumer. We maintain an edge over our competitors with our 135-year-old herbal and Ayurvedic heritage. We remain true to our heritage and are continuously working to update our portfolio in line with changing consumer demands and aspirations.

With the increasing demand for Ayurveda and Ayurvedic interventions in the post-COVID world, Dabur leveraged this opportunity by aggressively increasing the awareness and visibility of our products and enhancing their availability on e-commerce platforms as well as kirana stores, which were the preferred channels during the lockdowns. We also went a step ahead by providing immunity at the doorstep of our consumers through our Immunity Van programme.

While a lot of players are talking about or introducing their so-called Ayurvedic variants, Dabur offers authentic Ayurveda backed with Science. It’s this Science-based Ayurveda that’s our USP in this market and has helped us grow ahead of others. We have been investing in Ayurveda for over a century now and have been introducing products that offer the benefit of traditional Ayurveda in modern-day formats, backed with scientific tests.

Our Ayurvedic toothpaste Dabur Red paste has been among the fastest growing toothpaste brands in the country and we have emerged as the third largest player in this market. We have recently introduced the country’s first Ayurvedic Gel toothpaste. Another recent example is the launch of an Ayurvedic kadha for cough and cold in a ready-to-use format called Honitus Hot Sip. In addition, a number of new Ayurvedic products and medicines have been launched for digestive care, women’s health care, liver care etc.

Despite the entry of new players, Dabur has the advantage of being the early mover in this category. Dabur is today India’s leading natural personal and health care company with a portfolio of products on the Herbal/Ayurvedic platform. Dabur maintains its edge of competitors with its herbal and Ayurvedic heritage of over a century. We remain true to our heritage and are continuously working to update our portfolio in line with changing consumer demands and aspirations.

Dabur India also has a strong in-house research wing that follows a ‘bush-to-brand’ approach. We have our in-house nursery, which grows several rare herbs that go into various products. We have been growing quality rare medicinal herbs that are used in our products. Today, we grow rare herbs in over 5,000 acres of land across India. This in-depth knowledge about nature and natural ingredients is one of our big strengths in the market. This research wing also undertakes detailed tests on individual ingredients and products to ensure that the final product meets customer needs and aspirations.

Government set up the AYUSH ministry in 2014 to promote Ayurveda and traditional systems of medicine and in 2017 incentivized the industry by lowering the GST on Ayurveda products from 12 percent to 5 percent. How helpful have been these initiatives for the industry? How has Dabur leveraged them?

The setting up of Ministry of AYUSH was a much-needed move and has helped popularize Ayurveda.There is also greater collaboration now between the Public and Private sector. For instance, Dabur is conducting studies for Prophylaxis and management of COVID-19, along with various State Governments and the Ministry of AYUSH. This offers a great opportunity for Dabur and for the Government to make Ayurveda mainstream and popularize hitherto hidden gems of Ayurveda for prophylactic healthcare.

We have also conducted clinical trials on Chyawanprash, in addition to prophylaxis studies on Ashwagandha and Giloy, specifically with respect to COVID-19. These studies are expected to generate data to back the efficacy and effectiveness of this Ayurvedic remedy on preventing COVID-19 and also its effect on recovery from COVID and reducing the severity of COVID infection.

In a major breakthrough development during the year, Dabur completed a large scale, multi-centric, clinical study to validate the beneficial role of Dabur Chyawanprash in prophylaxis of COVID-19 infection by virtue of its immunity boosting property. This study was conducted at five different scientific/research institutions across India (one each at Jaipur, Mumbai and Pune and two in Vadodara). In fact, this study has already been submitted for publication in a scientific journal, which will also be peer reviewed.

The findings of the study reveal that regular use of Dabur Chyawanprash reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by up to 12 times in comparison to control group which was not consuming Chyawanprash. It was also noted that with regular usage of Dabur Chyawanprash, there was up to 6 times lesser severity of COVID 19 infections when compared to subjects in control group.

The study was conducted by a team of modern medical doctors, as per protocol, after getting ethics committee (IEC) approvals for all the study sites and registering with Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI), an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal. The study followed applicable GCP guidelines and was conducted after taking informed consent from all the study subjects. In the Clinical study, WHO Ordinal Scale was used to know the severity of infection among the subjects who were tested positive.

A total of 721 subjects were enrolled in this clinical study. Of these, 696 subjects completed the study, out of which 351 subjects were in Dabur Chyawanprash group (took 1 tsp Chyawanprash twice daily for 90 days) and 345 subjects were in control group which was not taking Chyawanprash.

In tested subjects who consumed Dabur Chyawanprash, a lesser incidence of COVID-19 infections was observed. Also, the severity of infection was mild in Dabur Chyawanprash group whereas the severity went up to severe level in the control group. In this study, subjects using Dabur Chyawanprash also had lesser incidence of influenza-like symptoms in comparison to the non-Chyawanprash users. As compared to subjects in the non-Dabur Chyawanprash group, the overall quality of life Index found to be significantly better in subjects using Chyawanprash as assessed using a validated questionnaire.

Where do you see this market in the near future? What is the future road map for Dabur?

Dabur has always believed in the benefit of Ayurveda and has been spreading the goodness among our consumers in India with a range of Ayurvedic products by developing and successfully introducing products based on Ayurveda to cater to the ever-changing needs of our consumers. For the past over a century, Dabur has been marrying the traditional knowledge of Ayurveda with cutting edge science to create highly efficacious products that cater to the varied needs of our consumers across generations. Going forward too, you will see Dabur introducing a host of new products, based on the tradition knowledge of Ayurveda in modern-day formats, to cater to the ever-changing needs of today's consumers.