Aiming to find a software that could be used for tracking the drugs right from the manufacturers to the retailers to check the menace of counterfeiting of drugs in the country, the union health ministry has constituted a task force under the chairmanship of H G Koshia, commissioner, Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat.

This task force was set up during a meeting that was held in Delhi in mid-March.

Once this task force submits its recommendation to the health ministry  they would take up this issue with the appropriate body. Once it is implemented in the country all the manufacturers in the country will have to adopt the new software and the state drug authorities will be liable to keep a tab on the companies and to check whether it is implemented effectively.

H G Koshia, commissioner, Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), informed, “We have members from across the sector to give their views and recommendation on the requirements for the software for drug manufacturing tracking system and how to track the medicines and control the issue of spurious drugs in the country. Our main aim is to ensure that all the drugs that are dispatched from the manufacturers would be traceable so that we can ensure that they are not counterfeited till they reach the retailers.”

Koshia will be acting as the chairman of the task force where he will be assisted by nine other members from different ministries and from the drug control office.  As of now five members have been appointed in this task force. They are Dr Jagshetty, Karnataka Drugs Controller, Malai Mitra, deputy DCGI, Dr S Eswara Reddy, assistant drug Controller of India, Vishwajeet Ringe, senior technical director at NIC and one person from the CDSCO office. The other members will soon be appointed and they would be representatives from Department of Consumer affairs, Department of legal affairs, Department of Commerce; and one representative from the Department of health and family welfare.

Koshia informed that the task force will have its first meeting as soon as the rest of the members are finalised by the government. “We would discuss among ourselves on the issues and come out with consensus on requirements for the software for drug manufacturing tracking system and how to go about with its implementation. We would then recommend it to the government for further proceedings. Apart from having discussion on the requirements, we would also have sessions on the possibility of implementing  e-governance across the country as it is being followed in the state of Gujarat,” he informed.