With a view to provide equal opportunity for the state drug regulators from across the country to understand the globally changing drug regulatory norms, the All India Drugs Control Officers' Confederation (AIDCOC) has urged the Centre to widen their horizon by selecting representatives from the state as well while sending delegation for international drug regulatory programmes.  

The aim behind this demand is to ensure that even state drug regulators get fair chance to represent the state and get hands on experience on varied subjects from experts from across the globe on regulatory subjects, like their counterparts from the CDSCO.

As of now, the Centre more-or-less selects representatives mainly from the CDSCO only to explore the benefits of international training programme, while state drug regulators, sparing handful incidences, have always been sidelined for unknown reasons. The association contends that this is not only affecting the morale of the state drug regulators, but also their level of timely exposure to drug regulatory developments and updates globally.

They pointed out that to give positive boost to the state functionary and expose them to global phenomenon, it is essential to adopt a systemic approach towards the selection procedure, which is inclusive of all. A regulatory expert pointed out that rather than resorting to a haphazard selection procedure that fails to help the system, as currently practised, the Centre should adopt a procedure that is based on selecting representative from the states as well.

“The state drug regulators play a very important role in effectively monitoring and implementing the Drugs and Cosmetics Act in their respective states, especially those who have pharma manufacturing hub. Thus special initiative should be taken to expose the officials to latest regulatory developments so that they are efficiently informed and updated about the same to ensure smooth functioning of their duties,” informed Ravi Uday Bhaskar, secretary general of the AIDCOC.

He further stressed, "All we demand is balanced representation for the state drug regulators for such international training programs and other initiatives. Sharing the dais with international drug regulators and think tanks from the globally recognised and accepted drug regulatory agencies will not only enable them to keep abreast with regular updates but will also help them in applying and using the essential knowledge to strengthen our drug regulatory system as well."