The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) in collaboration with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has started the first phase of upgradation of drug testing lab at Vadodara which will boost capacity from current drug testing capacity of 12,000 samples per month.

“An amount of Rs. 6 crore sanctioned by the central government and Rs. 4 crore by the state government has been successfully utilised and efforts are on to recruit manpower to do testing modalities which currently stands at 400,” informed Gujarat FDA Commissioner Dr H G Koshia.

Vadodara-based drug testing lab had tested the maximum number of 6,025 drug samples as part of a pan India spurious drugs survey which concluded last year to assess for the first time complete testing of not-of-standard quality (NSQ) drugs as per Indian pharmacopoeia and other pharmacopoeias.

This was followed by Central Drug Testing Lab (CDTL) Hyderabad which tested 5,461samples, CDTL Mumbai which tested 5,418 samples, CDTL Chennai which tested 5,257samples, CDTL Bengaluru which tested 2,033 samples and Maharashtra which tested 186 samples.

The Central government recently joined hands with the state government as part of upgrading labs at Bhuj, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara to international standard.

As per the plan, Centre will sanction another 60% of the project and State 40% cost which is estimated Rs. 45 crore.

Gujarat has been leading in the country in terms of collection and analysis of drug samples through its post-marketing surveillance programme.

As part of strengthening lab infrastructure, a testing lab in the northern part of Gujarat at Patan has also been planned for which funds are awaited. Number of drugs sampled and tested in Gujarat will enhance with the starting of a lab at Patan.

Further, Gujarat FDCA through its ongoing random sampling surveys at retail and wholesale stores, hospitals and manufacturing sites registered a collection of 13,540 samples last year which is the highest in the country.