Maharashtra FDA has issued 86,000 new product licenses last year of which Konkan division alone issued maximum number of 46,305 licenses followed by Nashik, Pune, Nagpur, Greater Mumbai, Aurangabad and Amravati.

There are around 883 allopathic manufacturing units in the state of which Konkan division has 419 units. Pune has 135 units, Greater Mumbai has 124 units, Aurangabad has 75 units, Nashik has 70 units, Nagpur has 40 units and Amravati has 20 units. Konkan has also taken a lead in the number of batches produced by manufacturing over 1lakh 82000 batches followed by Pune and Aurangabad.

As per official sources, drugs worth of Rs.35, 000 crore were purchased in the year 2013-14. Monitoring of sale of drugs exported and purchased locally by FDA has been done to maintain accountability in drug trade in the backdrop of global scrutiny in terms of GMP compliance.

FDA has found that out of the 3 lakh 5000 batches of drugs produced from the state, drugs worth Rs.19 lakh 892 were purchased domestically and exports accounted for Rs.15,500 crore.

Explains FDA Commissioner Mahesh Zagade, "Maharashtra accounts 17 per cent exports and 20 per cent of drugs manufactured from India. It therefore becomes evident that there is a need for monitoring at the local level to evaluate quality and quantity of drugs supplied to foreign countries. FDA has initiated efforts to ensure that drugs are manufactured as per global GMP norms."

"With the latest setback in the form of Vietnamese authorities decision to impose a ban on imports from Indian companies due to poor safety standards, there is a need for improvement in the quality standards and FDA's monitoring of drugs is bound to help in a big way," Zagade adds.