The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has started the online facility for granting licenses to the pharmacists across Maharashtra on the lines of Gujarat FDCA. In the first phase, online facility has been implemented for the pharmacists and it would be extended for other services in the near future.

This new online facility will help the retailers in saving their time as they will be able to apply for their licences and renewals online. The implementation of this technology is essential as it will make FDA more consumers friendly and approachable like its counterpart in Gujarat.

“Maharashtra FDA has adopted the similar features of Gujarat FDCA and has already started the facility from the month of December itself. This helps the officers to get the information about the samples withdrawn from the market, communication facility is also possible related to the data which also enforces us to inform the applicants about the expiry date of licenses in the next month or in next 12 months” said O Sadhwani joint commissioner Maha FDA.

“The database has already started and the data entry made by the Drug Inspectors across Maharashtra, from Mumbai and Thane should be well edited. Accordingly assistant commissioner grants the license after rechecking the data. The administration has issued login ID and password to all the licensed manufacturers to apply and check the status of their applications and also to drug inspectors in the state to feed the data about the samples,” he added.

Besides this the National Informatics Centre (NIC) which is providing the technology has started sending SMS alerts to the chemists to create awareness about granting licenses. The chemists need to register themselves with the FDA after which they will be getting SMS alerts regarding this. With this the applicant will be allowed to fill the application form online without wasting time.

This web-based software links to all the district offices and helps the regulator to monitor and control the licenses issued in the state, the details were provided by the applicant in paper and was later entered in to the system.

As of now the FDA’s main emphasis is on building the data, but in future they hope to continue and concentrate on developing the software for retailers and wholesalers, for food, administration and law and most importantly to get the list of defaulters, drugs samples which are not of standards.