In a major development, the department of drugs control in Tamil Nadu is planning a scheme to release the test results of drug samples within one month in order to help the manufacturing units and the traders, according to director of drugs control, G Selvaraju.

To implement the scheme, the testing capacity of the government laboratory in Chennai will be increased to 12000 samples from the current 5000. Very soon the capacity increasing work of the laboratory will be initiated by setting up modern sophisticated equipments in the lab, he said.

Having received sanction from the government for a proposal given to the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC), the DC department has placed orders for 10 High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography (GC), Mass Spectrometry (MS) and other state of the art apparatuses required for a sophisticated lab. He said the lab will be equipped with the most modern technologies within 30 days and it will become one of the biggest drug testing labs in the country with a capacity to test 12000 samples.

“I intent to increase the testing capacity of the laboratory by equipping it with sophisticated equipments and release the test result within one month or maximum 45 days. For this, we have requested the support of the government. In the last budget, the government had given Rs.14 crores for the DTL expansion. Now infrastructure and human resources are more than adequate to run the lab in full swing,” Selvaraju said.

The total number of analysts was increased to 51 recently by appointing 33 junior analysts. The increased manpower will help speed up the testing analysis in the laboratory and reduce the delay in releasing the result. The number of field staff will be increased to 135 in next month from the present 45. Government has recruited 90 drug inspectors two months ago and they are all under training now. Once they are assigned in separate zones, the sample collections will increase to a maximum of 7000, the drugs controller hoped.

Further, the director said very soon the department will apply for NABL accreditation for the laboratory as the central government is asking all the state government labs to apply for it.

“Already a consultant was identified and recommended to the government. We are waiting for permission from the government. As soon as government shows the green signal, we will go for accreditation,” he said.

The drugs control department also plans to submit a proposal to the government for establishing a second testing laboratory either in Coimbatore or in Madurai, the department sources said.