The Health ministry will soon set up a mini drug testing lab at JNPT, Nhava Sheva and Mumbai Airport as part of its mandate to control exports and imports of spurious drugs. It will be equipped with analytical modalities like AAS, GC, HPLC, IR and NIRS among others for effective detection, analysis and reporting on drug quality, according to a senior Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
Health Ministry also plans to also set up one at Ahmedabad airport at a strategic location in an area of minimum 3,000 sq ft. This will enhance the capability to analyse and detect spurious, NSQ drugs and counterfeit medicines which are ready to be exported at the airport in less than 40 seconds time without any manual intervention.
Other five labs would come up at Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai. Headed by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Government is also keen on expanding CDSCO’s capacity by 2020 by adding a total of 20 mini drug-testing labs at the port offices of the drug regulator.
Estimated to cost around Rs. 25 crore for which funds have already have been sanctioned, the mini-lab at Ahmedabad airport will be manned by a team of nine technical personnel led by a senior scientific officer. To ensure quality of drugs supplied to over 200 countries from India, CDSCO is also in the process of training its drug inspectors on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and risk based assessment.
Central government has allocated Rs. 900 crore for enhancing manpower and capacities of mini labs at port offices and mobile labs at CDSCO level. A total of additional 1,195 posts were also sanctioned for the upgradation of manpower and labs under the 12th five year plan.
Currently, there are seven drug-testing labs in the country in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Chandigarh and Kasauli and state drugs testing labs at Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra with an autonomous lab at Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), Ghaziabad for drug testing and analysis.
In August 2015, the cabinet committee on economic affairs approved a proposal to strengthen the country’s drug regulatory system at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,750 crore.