The Central Drug Testing Laboratory (CDTL)- Mumbai completed the task of analysing 5,797 samples of National Drug Survey Samples received through National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Noida. The lab has declared 382 samples as Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) and declared 1 sample as spurious.
The lab started receiving the samples since June, 2015 till May, 2016; hired and trained nearly 40 contractual staff with the approval of ministry to meet the deadline and deliver the report on time. The lab has submitted the report in the month of June, 2016
Dr. Raman Mohan Singh, director of CDTL, Mumbai, says: “We have successfully analysed the samples we received from NIB and submitted our final report. We are awaiting the final report from the government which probably be out by this month end. In this regard as further action CDSCO is already training the drug inspectors, government analyst and regulatory staff for the purpose of "Risk Based Inspection of the Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities - all over country.
He further says, “The staff and officers have taken every single effort for speedy analysis of the molecules allotted to the laboratory.
The Ministry supported this venture by sanctioning 35 more contractual posts, 25 recruited in July 2015 and 10 in December 2015. These includes 25 Bench Chemists and 05 Supporting Staff who have worked up to March 2016 in the laboratory.”
It was also informed by the source that the CDSCO has already initiated the inspection of pharmaceutical manufacturing unit whose drug were analysed as not of standard quality.
The CDSCO initiated the National Drug Survey Plan in consultation with NIB to put an end to the conflicting views related to the spurious drugs and drugs not of standard quality. Overall 47, 000 samples were collected and sent to Central Drug Testing Labs in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati, state drugs testing labs at Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and a lab at Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), Ghaziabad for testing and analysis.