The Maharashtra Food Drugs and Administration (FDA) will establish three new drug testing laboratories at Nagpur, Nashik and Pune to test the quality standards of the drugs manufactured in the state.

The state regulator has received Rs. 10 crore from the central and state government for purchasing new equipment. Informs Maharashtra FDA commissioner Dr Harshdeep Kamble, "Labs at Nagpur, Pune and Nashik are likely to start by next year. Health ministry has shown keen interest in the establishment of labs."

It takes minimum 30 days to 45 days for analysing a drug sample. Samples collected during raids across the state have to be transported to the existing lab at Aurangabad and Mumbai which results in inordinate delays in doing the final analysis and preparing reports.

Currently, FDA has only two drug testing laboratories one at Mumbai and another at Aurangabad. The drug testing laboratory located at Mumbai is accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

Delay in analysing not-of-standard and sub standard drugs and preparing results of drug samples could be reduced considerably with setting up of more drug testing laboratories.

Effective drug recall is the major objective of setting up testing labs. Drawing samples, analysing them for safety and drug recall will get a boost with the upgradation of drug testing infrastructure across the state. There would be considerable reduction in downtime with the upgradation of drug testing labs and samples would be tested in five to 15 days time.