The three drug testing laboratories at Udaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan established recently are now in the process of recruiting highly skilled manpower required for the job. As per the requirement, 12 lab personnel will be recruited for the purpose. Having a budget allocation of Rs.  18 crore, the labs will also be equipped with the state-of-the-art testing technologies and methods. Currently, there is only one drug testing laboratory in the state which is located at Jaipur.

With the coming up of three state drug testing labs in Rajasthan, testing would be done in a mere 15 days time and the capacity would gradually increase over a period of time. The enhancement in the capacities will reduce the downtime significantly.

At present, the drug testing lab at Jaipur gets around 500 samples and testing of samples takes one month to three months time.

According to a state drug control official, "The task of upgrading infrastructure will also entail recruiting skilled technical personnel for the same. A request has been sent to the Rajasthan Public Service Commission on the same."

Around 60,000 brands of drugs are available in the market and drug samples are collected based on the random survey. There are 60 drug control officers in the state. There are around 20,000 retail establishments and 16,000 drug distribution counters in government hospitals across the state which are closely monitored by the state drug regulators.

Rajasthan has a total of 17,298 healthcare institutions including primary health centres (PHCs), community health centres (CHCs), sub centres and government hospitals.

The state has also been providing free medicines under the Rajasthan Free Drug Distribution Scheme since its launch on October 2, 2011 through Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation (RMSC). The scheme has been able to address issues like insufficient supply of drugs at several places and shortage of doctors, para-medical staff and pharmacists mainly at the primary health centres in remote villages.

The scheme aims to provide essential medicines free to anyone walking into a government-run health institute. RMSC, formed to implement the scheme and steer the state towards a Right to Health, cites studies to point out that expenditure on medicines accounts for about 50 to 80 per cent of the total cost of treatment in India. As per the WHO, 65 per cent of the Indian population lacks regular access to essential medicines.

Officials say that since the scheme started, there has been a substantial increase in the number of girl children in the state (from 921 in 2001 to 928 in 2011, with the rise in urban areas being 890 to 914).  They are even hopeful of the state’s sex ratio improving drastically as a result. At least 17 state governments and several countries including Nepal and Canada have also expressed interest in replicating it.