In order to enhance the capacity of sampling and testing of medicines in the state, three more drug testing laboratories will be established in Rajasthan at Udaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner by June this year. An amount of Rs. 18 crore has been allocated by the state government for this purpose. Currently, there is only one drug testing laboratory in the state which is located at Jaipur.

At present, the drug testing lab at Jaipur gets around 500 samples and testing of samples takes one month to three months time. Says Ajay Jain, assistant drug controller, Rajasthan Drug Control Department, "Around 60, 000 brands of drugs are available in the market and drug samples are collected based on the random survey. With the coming up of three state drug testing labs in Rajasthan, testing would be done in a mere 15 days time and the capacity would gradually increase over a period of time. The enhancement in the capacities will reduce the downtime significantly."

A team of drug control officials from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) office along with the Rajasthan drug control officials had also done random sampling of medicines recently with the aim of ensuring patient safety through supply of efficacious medicines.

"Around 60 drug samples had been collected during the random sampling in December 2013 which is a part of the exercise meant to keep a stringent check on the quality of medicines through surveillance by the DCGI officials. As per the exercise, every month a state will be chosen and will be put under surveillance," informs Jain.

There are around 20,000 retail establishments and 16,000 drug distribution counters in government hospitals across the state which are closely monitored by the state drug regulators.

"Besides checking the quality of drugs, we are planning to appoint 20 drug control officers to enhance the existing manpower which currently stands at 84 for the entire state," Jain adds.