Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) plans to use its e-Governance system to bolster the drug withdrawal system in the state by forewarning the district level regulatory officials and retail pharmacists on any batch of medicines that are found to be below the standard quality in the drug testing laboratory.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
FDCA has made a plea to the state health ministry to allocate funds to include a software to the current system for the purpose. The agency is in the last stage of completion of the e-governance project to grant sales and product licenses for drugs through online and monitoring.
According to HG Koshia, commissioner of Gujarat FDCA, all the licensed retail pharmacists, with the help of the software, would be automatically alarmed via short message services (SMSs) right at the time when a low quality standard or unauthentic drug test result is input into the computer in the state drug testing laboratory.
The regulatory body has also requested the state government to allocate some funds to set up an additional drug testing laboratory in Gujarat, apart from its existing drug testing laboratory at Baroda, and has also taken necessary measures to add more manpower to the drug testing laboratory.
The laboratory has obtained accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) in mid 2008, and has a capacity to conduct 9000 drug sample tests annually. Additionally, there are two other facilities at Bhuj and Rajkot to conduct test on food samples.
Mr Koshia said: “We already have the details of every licensed pharma retail outlet in the state and just need a software to connect it with the drug testing lab at Baroda. This will ensure that even reports on a single batch will be known to the retailer through which they can take adequate step even before we alert them officially.”
“With the industry friendly policy and the right environment for growth, the pharma industry in the state is growing at a fast pace. We are looking at the situation five years ahead and a new drug testing laboratory with international standards would be a necessary by that time.”