The Department of AYUSH will summon the state drug control officials of eight states to assess the status of GMP compliance by the ISM drug units in these states. Fourteen states have reported their position with regard to GMP compliance of ISM units some time back.

The drug control authorities of states like Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Goa, Jharkhand are to be summoned by the Central Government very soon, enquiring explanation for not submitting the report, informed Dr. S.K. Sharma, adviser (ayurveda), Department of AYUSH to Pharmabiz.

The states, which have already reported the GMP compliance are, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Gujarat, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

"About 4000 ISM drug units in the country have complied with GMP, while show cause notices were sent to 1000 units and licenses of another 1000 units were cancelled, according to the available data," Sharma added.

"The instruction was to take stringent action against those companies which have not commenced any work for modification until January 2006. But we are unaware of the status of compliance in eight of these states, as they have not submitted reports to the department," said Sharma to Pharmabiz. He was at Chennai to lead a panel discussion on Good Manufacturing Practices for ISM sector, at the health fair, Arogya Chennai 2006, organised by Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Welfare and Indian Trade Promotion Organisation, New Delhi.