Centre suggests States and UTs to setup spurious drug monitoring cell

In a major development, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has suggested states and UTs to setup monitoring cells to fight against spurious, substandard and adulterated drugs across India.

New Delhi: The Drug Consultative Committee (DCC), a statutory body under the union health ministry, in a recent meeting with the representatives from states and UTs have recommended the creation of monitoring cells to fight against spurious, substandard and adulterated drugs across India.

Officials in the Health Ministry told ETV Bharat on Friday that the creation of monitoring cells will ensure that no new drugs are licensed without prior approval of the central licensing authority.

"The department is committed to ensuring that the quality, safety and efficacy of drugs are not compromised. A series of measures have already been taken including strengthening of legal provision, workshops and training programmes for manufacturers and regulatory officials and measures such as risk based inspections," officials said.

The issue of spurious and substandard drugs are occasionally being discussed by the drug controller general of India (DCGI).

Ironically a potential shortage of drugs in India could further flourish the business of spurious drugs.

It may be mentioned here that India imports 70 per cent of raw materials for drugs like active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from China and with India's eagerness to make the country self-reliant as far as API is concerned could be a major challenge.

Limited drug testing facilities is also a matter of concern for India.

As per Health Ministry statistics, India has only eight central drug testing laboratories set up in different states and UTs besides 47 other drug testing laboratories set up under the national good laboratory practice programme.

Karnataka has a maximum of three drug testing laboratories, whereas Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh has two drug testing laboratories each.

In 2018, the central drug standard control organisation (CDSCO) identified about 4.5 per cent of all generic drugs in the Indian market to be substandard.

Significantly, keeping in view the fact that cases of supply of spurious, substandard and adulterated drugs in the market are reported often, a Parliamentary Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recently suggested the central government put in place a vibrant, effective regulatory regime so that the public could be safeguarded from such unsafe drugs.