Appraising the strong law enforcement activities being carried out in Tamil Nadu, the state drugs control department has been conferred with the prestigious award, ‘State with Best Enforcement of Drugs Laws’ by the New Delhi based national NGO, Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) India Initiative.

The award given for strict enforcement of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules was received by the state drugs control director, S Abdul Khader, at the 5th National Conference of PSM held at Gandhi Bhawan, University of Kashmir, in Srinagar on May 20.

PSM organised the conference and award function in collaboration with Government of India and the University of Kashmir. Dr G N Singh, DCGI,  Asiya Naqash, health minister of J&K, Prof Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, vice-chancellor of Kashmir University and drugs control directors from various states were present in the meeting.

After receiving the award Abdul Khader said, in the selection process for the award, after assessing the enforcement activities of various state drugs control administrations in the country, PSM has shortlisted two states, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, and finally the DCA of Tamil Nadu won the number one position. A special award for Technical Improvement in drug control administration has gone to the state DCA of Gujarat. The awards were given away by the VC of Kashmir University, said Khader.

Tamil Nadu DC department has been receiving recognitions from various NGOs and social organisations on health for the last two years for good implementation of laws in the pharma trade and manufacturing industry. According to information received, PSM has taken into consideration the strong steps taken by the TN DCA to ensure the safety of drugs manufactured, imported and sold in the market, and distributed in all healthcare institutions.

To its credit, in January this year, following the spread of seasonal communicable diseases in various parts of the country, TN DCA formed 50 special squads of drug inspectors to conduct investigations and surprise raids in retail pharmacies to check whether the retail shops were selling the Schedule X drug, oseltamivir, without prescription. The state government appreciated this bold step initiated by the department and gave all support for strict law enforcement.

Later, the department took another step of enforcing Rule 65 (2) of the D&C Act & Rules to ensure sales of prescription drugs were done under the supervision of registered pharmacists in all the retail stores.

In 2014 – 15, TN DCA registered more than 100 violation cases against wholesalers and distributors and all the cases were filed before respective area courts. About 100 prosecution cases were filed against manufacturing companies for violation of Section 18 (a) (i) of the D&C Act. Majority of the cases were for manufacturing ‘not-of-standard-quality’ (NSQ) drugs.