The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (Guj FDCA) recently made a proposal to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) urging him to consider entering into a tri-party agreement between the state regulatory body, DCGI and Gujarat National Informatics Centre (NIC) for sharing its self-licensing software Xtended Licensing and Laboratory Note (XLN) with interested parties. Through this initiative, which will put this unique software into public domain, Guj FDCA hopes to share its benefit with other drug regulators for ensuring good governance across country through the use of IT.

This software, an integral part of the e-governance programme adopted by the Gujarat drug authority was developed by NIC, to help the regulators perform their duties more effectively. This software enables speedy disposal of various applications while bringing in transparency to the system.

Dr H G Koshia, commissioner of the Guj FDCA who played a major role in integrating the E-governance programme throughout the state had made this proposal during the Drug Consultative Committee (DCC) meeting that was held in New Delhi, last month. It is understood that DCGI Dr G N Singh has shown keen interest in this proposal and is said to have agreed to consider the same.

He informs that through this software the FDCA has been successful in regulating the sales and manufacturing aspects related to drugs, food and cosmetics; issuance of licenses, etc.  “For us the safety and health of our patients is a must and we are glad that we have been able to deliver best services to all the stakeholders with the help of this software. It is with this intention in mind that we have decided to share our software with others so that even they can use this software to streamline and bring in better monitoring and effective implementation of the D&C Act,” pointed out Dr Koshia.

He further added that one of the most import features of this software is that it also enables the registration of all the pharmacists and chemists within the state which prevents multiple illegal enrolment of pharmacists, a grave issue that regulators have to tackle with today.

As per the proposal, the state drug regulator has requested the DCGI to act as a facilitator to ensure adoption for this software, NIC Gujarat to act as a service provider while Gujarat FDCA who has played a vital role in developing and adopting this software to give expertise to interested parities. By agreeing to this agreement the Centre would be giving a legal status to this software that has been developed by the Gujarat NIC.

Interestingly this software has bagged a lot of recognition at national level by winning prestigious awards like eINDIA 2013 public choice award, organised by Elets Technomedia that focuses on IT in government, education, healthcare, under the category of government initiatives in healthcare, excellence in IT award 2012, in healthcare sector, organised by the Computer Society of India (CSI) to name a few.