A modern drug-testing lab with an investment of Rs.2 crore is being set up in Hyderabad to help improve the overall quality of drugs and to check the spread of substandard and spurious drugs in the market. The Drugs Controller General of India is fully funding the project and the construction work has already begun.

The fully equipped testing lab would be functional by the end of 2004. When operational, the drug laboratory would emerge as the biggest facility in south India for testing, including biotech products. With the existing drug testing facilities at Hyderabad and Vijayawada, the DCA has been able to achieve around 80 to 85 per cent prosecution rate in cases of spurious and sub-standard drugs.

AP DCA has cut short the procedure to ensure quick justice. DCA gets the seized samples tested in one of the eight private laboratories approved by the DCA and provides the necessary evidence at the earliest.

The major sources of spurious and sub-standard drugs were Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.