The government of Gujarat will be recruiting 60 new drug inspectors as part of its strengthening of the state Drugs Control Administration. The state public service commission has almost finished the selection process and the appointment will take place in three months’ time, said H G Khoshia, Commissioner, FDA, Gujarat.

The total number of drug inspectors in the state will thus rise to 102, which is the sanctioned strength  for the total 25 districts. Currently, the state has only 42 drug inspectors and senior drug inspectors are assigned to do the work of drug inspectors in certain areas.

While speaking to Pharmabiz, the Commissioner said his department has recently started district offices in six more districts with ADCs in charge of each district. Previously these districts were looked after by the officers of neighbouring districts. Thus all the districts in the state got district drug control offices.

Khoshia said the shortage of inspectors happened because of a recent promotion given to 50 drug control officials to the rank of ADCs and senior drug inspectors. So the staff strength of inspectors came down to 42. Along with the forthcoming recruitment, the department will create two more posts of Joint Commissioner and four posts of deputy commissioner. Now the department comprises five Joint Commissioners, six Deputy Commissioners and one Assistant Commissioner. Out of these, five JCs, one JC is looking after the state Drug Testing Lab. He further said, in 2010, the government has recruited 192 staff members through promotion and direct recruitment.

According to the Commissioner, the state has three drug testing laboratories with modern facilities located in Baroda, Rajkot and Bhuj. The department has sent a proposal to the government for a new laboratory with state-of-the-art facilities to be established in Gandhinagar.

Gujarat has a total of 26659 drug traders including retailers, wholesalers and both, he said. The number of licensed retail shops is 13235 and wholesalers are 11003. There are 2421 traders dealing in both retail and wholesale. The number of blood banks is 145, out of which 50 are under the control of Government and Red Cross Society. The state faces no shortage of any group of blood and all the blood banks and blood storage centres have surplus stocks.

He said his department has made  many reforms for the convenience of the public. Now any person from any part of the state can receive the license within 24 hours of filing the application. The ADCs in the district head quarters have been given charge for issuance of drug licenses.

Gujarat has 3270 manufacturing companies for generics. Thirty one units have US FDA facilities, 475 companies have WHO GMP facilities and 175 units comply state GMP norms, the Commissioner said.