Utilising the fund under the central government's Capacity Building Project, the Kerala Drugs Control Department (KDCD) is upgrading its laboratory and is also setting up a drug information centre in the state. The state-of-the-art laboratory will help test more samples and will provide the test results faster.

For manning the state-of-the-art laboratory, the state government will appoint a large number of analysts. Besides, there is also a plan to appoint a joint drug controller in the state.

Besides this, the KDCD will also be setting up a drug information centre in its premises to provide authentic information about drugs. The proposed drug information centre will have a clinical pharmacist who would be providing the necessary information to the people including the doctors.

"The drug information centre has been a long cherished dream of the department and after so many years it is materializing. We want to make it a full-fledged one wherein all the essential information about drugs would be provided to the people including doctors who contact us. We are appointing a clinical pharmacist, who is well qualified to dispense information about the drugs, its side effects, etc. A joint drug controller will also be appointed for taking care of licensing and GMP activities and to supervise the awareness programmes being planned by the department," sources said.

The drug control department is also planning to utilize the laboratory of the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Thirvananthapuram to analyse and test drug samples. A proposal to make the college laboratory an extension of the KDCD laboratory has already been sent to the concerned authorities.

"The college laboratory is not being utilized fully, hence we though of making it an extension of our department's laboratory. All the drug samples can be analysed there. If this proposal is accepted, more drug samples can be tested," sources said.

While the department is expeditiously undertaking the upgradation programme, the central government fund that has been lying with the Kerala finance department for more than a month has not yet reached KDCD.

"The fund has arrived nearly a month back, but still it has not reached our hands. We have been repeatedly reminding them to transfer the money. We hope it will be done in some days. Otherwise, our plans will be in jeopardy," sources added.