The Union Health Ministry has asked all the states in the country to make fresh suggestions on the formation of the controversial Central Drug Authority (CDA), which has been pending with the Union Health Ministry for quite some time. While Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has written to all the chief ministers to make fresh suggestions, the union health secretary has written letters to the state health secretaries in this regard, it is learnt.

Azad’s initiative in this regard is significant as the health minister was not in favour of the CDA. When the new government came to power with Ghulam Nabi Azad as the new health minister, it was reported that Azad did not show much interest in the projects introduced by his predecessor Dr Anbumani Ramadoss. As the formation of CDA was one of the pet projects of Dr Ramadoss, Azad was learnt to have asked senior officials in the ministry to keep the files regarding the CDA under the carpet, at least for some time as he was not convinced about the need for the creation of such a mechanism in the country.

The formation of the CDA, aiming to centralize the licensing for manufacture of drugs in pursuance of the recommendations made by the Mashelkar Committee, was a contentious issue between the government and the industry, especially the small and medium drug manufacturers. Though the Bill proposing to make amendments in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, to facilitate the creation of CDA was to be introduced in Parliament during the last session of the last government in March this year, the government shelved the move at the eleventh hour, presumably under pressure from the small scale industry associations and other interest groups.

When the government announced its intentions to form the CDA around three years back to centralise the drug regulatory system in the country, there were protests from the small scale sector and other interested groups against the CDA. As the protest against the formation of CDA reached its crescendo, the central government formed a Parliamentary panel under Amar Singh to get the feedback of different stakeholders on the issue. To elicit the opinion of the stakeholders, the panel had sittings in different parts of the country. During its sittings, the committee interacted with representatives of small and large drug manufacturers associations, experts, organisations, NGOs, consumer forums and officials of the state drug departments.

Apart from the small and medium scale units, the state drug authorities have also been opposing the formation of CDA. The state authorities had appraised their views to the Amar Singh committee. After hearing all the stakeholders, the Amar Singh committee had also opposed the formation of a totally new central authority but called for strengthening the existing set-up to streamline the sector by setting up Central Drug Administration.