AP Government has approved state Drug Control Administration to levy user charges on certain services offered by it and utilize the funds for improving facilities and increasing the strength of drug inspectors in the department, Venkata Reddy, director, DCA told Pharmabiz.

The services for which DCA is allowed to levy user charges and the user charges for each service, as permitted by state government, is as follows- Quality and Capacity Certificate- Rs.300; Validity Certificate- Rs.100, Good Manufacturing Practices Certificate-Rs.300; Market Standing Certificate (subject to mandatory inspection)- Rs.300; Free Sale Certificate-Rs.100; Non-conviction Certificate-Rs.300, Manufacturing and Marketing Certificate (subject to mandatory inspection)-Rs.300; Performance Certificate (subject to mandatory inspection)-Rs.300; WHO GMP Certificate for each product of the company-Rs.1000; Certificate Of Pharmaceutical Product (COPP) for each product-Rs.300 ; Other Certificates including approval of technical staff, change of brand names, and transport permits under NDPS- Rs.500 each.

Drug Control authorities of Maharashtra and Karnataka have been collecting user charges. AP DCA has joined this pool a week ago, and has collected over Rs.1 lakh so far. The certificates the DCAs offer help firms in matters of exports and during the process of tenders. The WHO GMP certificates are issued to firms after a thorough joint inspection by inspectors from both central and state drugs departments, Reddy added.

It is pertinent to note, in September last year, the AP government has decided to impose user charges on drug companies, manufacturing units, drug licences and renewals and the proposal will come into effect soon. The amount so collected was proposed to be used for strengthening the functioning of the Drug Control Administration by recruiting at least 50 new drug inspectors for the department. No additional amount would be spent from the exchequer for salaries of these 50 odd additional inspectors as their expenses would be met from the user charges collected, Health Minister Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said.

The minister said a need was felt for recruitment of additional staff to check the proliferation of spurious and sub-standard drugs and the growing menace of contaminated blood supply in the market. As the state government had imposed a ban on fresh recruitment, he said that the administration decided to collect user charges and utilize that amount for paying the salaries of new staff.