As a part of its drug testing infrastructure upgradation programme, the Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (UPFDA) is planning to recruit 100 lab personnel at its Lucknow lab. Procurement of state-of-the-art lab testing equipment is also being carried out through a tendering process which will help analyse the quality of drugs at its lab in Lucknow.
The lab in Lucknow is the only drug testing lab which requires infrastructure upgradation to a certain level so that samples could be analysed with less turnaround time. Says a senior UPFDA official, “We are expecting to analyse 8000 to 12000 samples annually with the upgradation of the lab.”
There are currently five testing labs in the state located at Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Agra, Varanasi and Lucknow. The state testing lab at Lucknow is the only lab which currently analyses drug samples. About Rs. 1.75 crore had also been allocated in the past for building expansion at Lucknow testing lab.
The need for urgent upgradation was required considering the fact that at present there are four testing labs at Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Agra and Varanasi where only testing of food products is carried out.
To enforce compliance with Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, around 104 posts have been sanctioned in the state. The state currently has 79 drug inspectors to inspect around 70,000 drug retail stores in the state. This also includes inspection of 500 manufacturing units and 300 plus blood banks in the state. According to Hathi Committee, there is a need for one drug inspector to properly inspect 200 retail drug stores.
First-of-its-kind online drug store licensing system
UPFDA has set up first of its kind online drug store registration and licencing system for pharmacists to accomplish timely issuance of retail and wholesale licenses. The online system developed by the state drug control authority with help from National Informatics Centre (NIC) will ensure transparency and hence patient safety.
On successful registration, the system generates a unique registration number for the application which is used for further processing of the registration.
The system is foolproof and seamless as it doesn't allow duplication of forms and hence will help in the veracity of the registrations and licenses in the state. Two forms are required to be filled to start the process of registration with a consolidated fee of Rs. 3000 which has to be renewed every five years thereafter.
Says D K Tiwari, drug inspector, UPFDA, "The system is transparent and will ensure that professional ethics of pharmacists continue in the larger public interest. Online data with the system is currently hosted in NIC cloud and is going to be shifted to the data centre of the state government as a part of the government policy to make the system more effective. We are also continuously upgrading the system for effective data handling. The system also offers a grievance redressal mechanism to address the problems of retail drug store owners or pharmacists."
As per the conditions of registration, applicants are required to have a valid personal e-mail ID and mobile number which should be kept active. The name of the applicant should be spelt correctly in the application as it appears in the license.
Printout of the "Forms" with fee challan and support documents are required as part of the application to be submitted to the District Licensing Authority Office, within 15 days from the date of submission of application online.
NIC, under the department of electronics and information technology of the government of India, is a premier science and technology organisation, at the forefront of the active promotion and implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in the government. NIC has spearheaded the e-governance drive in the country for the last three decades building a strong foundation for better and more transparent governance and assisting the governments endeavour to reach the hitherto unreached.
Recruitment of drug inspectors
UPFDA is also in the process of recruiting new drug inspectors following an Allahabad bench of High Court (HC) ruling. The ruling settles a long pending dispute related to the experience criteria to qualify as a drug inspector.
The disputed experience criteria as stipulated in Section 21 of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 states that a drug inspector should have 18 months experience in inspection of Schedule C drugs manufacturing units of the state.
HC has finally ruled out that the existing optional criteria of 18 months experience in inspections of Schedule C drug manufacturing units is not applicable and the state government can recruit the drug inspectors on an urgent basis based on the qualification specified in the act.