Western zone of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) will soon get 20 drug inspectors out of the total 62 drug inspectors being recruited by the Union Health Ministry in the country to strengthen the CDSCO to make it more efficient in performing its duties, including the issuance of CoPP which is under litigation.

At present, there are only five drug inspectors in the entire west zone CDSCO, three in Mumbai and two in Ahmedabad. “It is a tough job to conduct inspections by mere five inspectors in the zone that covers five states and two union territories – Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh. The newly recruited 20 drug inspectors will be very helpful in conducting the inspections expeditiously,” a senior CDSCO official said.

Apart from collecting and inspecting medicines in the market, according to the law, drug inspectors' duty is to conduct inspection in each blood bank every year. They also have to conduct examine on those blood banks which have applied for license renewal, compliance verifications and new centre. Each blood bank license has to be renewed every five years. CDSCO official said, “Few blood bank owners pay the license renewal fees and continue functioning. Inspections of such blood banks are held back as we lack manpower. New license applications are kept on priority because the centre cannot start functioning before inspections.”

The CDSCO is planning to increase the number of drug inspectors across the country and is looking to depute at least 200 drug inspectors by the end of this year. As many as 63 persons have been recruited recently as drug inspectors and are joining the machinery in March this year in a bid to bolster the administration.

The move is also important as there were criticisms that the CDSCO was not adequately staffed to handle the extra burden of issuing the Certificate of Pharmaceutical Products (CoPP) which was earlier done by the State Licensing Authorities. The DCGI office, which is in a legal wrangle over the CoPP issue, also wants to prove before the court that it has the sufficient strength for the task.