The Central Indian Pharmacopoeia Laboratory (CIPL), at Ghaziabad near Delhi, will now exclusively carry out the regulatory tests, new drug tests from the DCGI, and other tests related to the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) for preparing the Indian Pharmacopoeia addenda 2008 and forthcoming standard setting documents.

The existing tasks of testing the drug samples from the state drug inspectors, survey samples from CDSCO and port officers in the Northern States will now be held at the Regional Drug Testing Laboratory at Chandigarh, leaving the CIPL to focus on more important tasks related to pharmacopoeia, sources said.

The IPC, which has been looking for autonomous status, thus moved one more step closer towards the goal with this. The Centre also has assured enough funds and staff required for the CIPL as the back-up laboratory for the IPC.

Dr Surendra Singh, additional director at CDL, CRI, Kasauli has been given the charge of regional tests and Dr Raman M Singh from IPC will be the officer-in-charge to sign the tests. The process of diverting samples to the RDTL, Chandigarh has already started, it is learnt.

Meanwhile, the CIPL has also started working on getting accreditation from the Quality Council of India and may become the first lab to get that certification in the country. The QCI is still to announce the separate norms for the testing labs and diagnostic labs, but the CIPL has started efforts in implementing the quality standards.

As part of the World Bank-assisted Capacity Building Project to check the quality of marketed drugs in the country, the CIPL has tested 3000 samples sent through the health ministry in just six months. While the other 3000 samples, sent to other agencies, were yet to be completed, it is learnt.

Besides, testing the samples from drug inspectors and port offices, the CIPL has been entrusted with new drug and regulatory tests. It is also the appellate laboratory for the condom testing. The sample from the health ministry and from other sources regularly tested along with all other medical devices in the medical devices section. It also has been also holding the verification testing of basic tests for bulk drugs and dosage forms received from WHO, Geneva from time to time.