The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA)  recently launched a not-of-standard quality (NSQ) drug SMS alert system through which all the stakeholders in the state will now be notified of the recalled NSQ drugs at the earliest. The latest addition which is the part of the E-governance initiative taken by the state drug authority is specifically dedicated to address and protect the patients from administering NSQ drugs.

Guj FDCA is the first drug authority in the country to have this SMS alert system for the benefit of the patients. Though the state authority is launching the product now, they have been running pilot projects to check on the validation and effectiveness of this system from last two weeks.

According to Dr H G Koshia, commissioner, Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), “Our main aim by installing this system is to ensure total patient safety, as it is specifically designed with an aim to sensitise the stake holders from selling recalled NSQ drugs in the market. With the help of this system it will be more easier and faster for the drug authorities to inform them, so that the product can be taken off the market as soon as possible before it reaches the patients at large.”

Explaining the modus operandi, Dr Koshia informed that once a drug is declared as an NSQ, a report will be immediately generated on-line from the Baroda based drug testing lab, which is automatically transferred to the FDCA commissioner's system with all the details.

Once the commissioner goes through it, all he has to do is send a bulk SMS to all the stakeholders, which includes doctors, chemists, wholesalers, retailers and the companies, who are registered within his system informing them about the recalled products batch number, manufacturing detail etc.

Once the stakeholders receive this SMS alert they are expected to immediately stop the use of the product in question in the market and return it back to the supplier.

“Earlier, even after two months after the drugs were recalled by the authorities, NSQ's were  found to be available in the market due to long procedural delays caused due to paper work in the FDA' office, labs, manufacturing units etc. putting patients life at risk. With this system in place, it will ensure faster and precise response from the stakeholders as there will be no room for postponing the action of recall, ensuring faster action,” added Dr Koshia.