The Food and Drug Administration of Maharashtra has asked the pharmaceutical industry to form separate vigilance cells to work in coordination with its vigilance cell to put up a united fight against spurious drugs in the market.

The state FDA commissioner Dhanraj Khamatkar has mooted this idea of forming separate vigilance cells by the pharmaceutical industry associations which can, in tandem with the government vigilance cell, keep a constant vigil on the drug market. Khamatkar's initiative comes in the wake of the recent exposure of manufacturing of fake drugs in the northern region of the country.

Though experts vary on the value of spurious drugs in the country, conservative estimates say the fake drug industry runs into several thousands of crore of rupees in the country. The magnitude of the issue can be gauged from the fact that several industry experts have suggested death sentence for those who indulge in manufacturing and distributing spurious drugs.

Khamatkar, who has recently taken over the reigns of the Maharashtra FDA, said that though he is yet to write to the pharmaceutical industry in this regard, the issue has been discussed with the industry captains. "Initial response from the industry on this issue is good. It is on their interest too as their reputation is also at stake", he said.

The drug department proposes to form around six or seven vigilance cells by various industry associations and trade associations like IPA, OPPI, IDMA, AIDCOA, etc. As these organisations are big organisations representing big industries, they can separately form vigilance cells. These vigilance cells will exchange information among them and the vigilance cell of the drug department.

Though there is a vigilance cell under the drug control department, there are limitations to its works due to several problems like staff shortage, release of funds, etc. The vigilance cells by the industry itself will work more poignantly as there will not problems like this, a senior official in the drug department said.