R Anand Rajashekar releasing the IDMA technical monograph

The Karnataka Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association (KDPMA) organized a seminar on 'Water for Pharmaceutical Use" in association with Indian Drugs Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and Association of Pharmaceutical Analysts (APA) in the context of the implementation of schedule M of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act. The provision makes it mandatory on all pharma companies to have a properly validated water treatment system. The seminar covered all topics covering various aspects like equipment qualification, microbial contamination and control, treatment of raw water, use of UV, various modern water treatment techniques, storage systems and accessories.

The seminar was inaugurated by R Anand Rajashekar, Drugs Controller, government of Karnataka. G D Asrani, representative from the IDMA Techncial Sub-Committee and R.S. Iyer, pharma consultant (Quality Control) were the special IDMA/APA invitees for the seminar. On the occasion, Anand Rajashekar formally unveiled IDMA technical monograph No.2 titled "Test Standards".

The seminar began with the DQ/ IQ/ OQ/PQ requirements for setting up a water treatment system by Sankar of Ion Exchange Ltd, He spoke on the various water treatment techniques currently available in the market which can be custom designed based on user requirements.

This was followed by a talk on quality of raw water and modern polishing techniques by Satish Badri of Aquatech. Various modern techniques like electron de-ionization, ultra filtration was also dealt with.

Manjari Chunekar of Don Whiteley covered the microbial control aspect and presented a talk on Rabit-based on impedance as a new microbial technique for rapid determination of the microbiological contamination. Other aspects like sanitation technique were also discussed. Use of ultra violet as a tool was very lucidly presented by Naganarayanan of Alfa Purifiers. All areas where UV systems could be used in the water treatment plant were explained along with the details of how to qualify and monitor UV system.

Having generated good quality water, it is very essential to develop and validate a good distribution system so that the quality of water can be maintained. The various loop systems available, types of welding used for pipe lines, hot and cold storage systems, water system balancing requirements etc was explained by Arun Shenoy of VAQ Systems.