To tide over crunch, State to see uptick in drug testing labs

Hyderabad: With the medical shops doubling from 20,000 to 45,000 during the last decade and with only a drug testing lab in the State, the government plans to set up four drug testing labs, besides strengthening the existing lab here.

This was informed by Health MinisterC Damodar Rajanarasimhawhile chairing a high-level review meeting with officials from the Drug Control Authority (DCA) and the Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC) here on Tuesday.

The agenda focused on intensifying regulatory measures against the manufacturing and distribution of substandard and counterfeit medicines.

Officials informed that with only one drug-testing lab established in 1956—which has a maximum testing capacity of 400 samples a month—this year only 3,255 samples were tested due to capacity constraints. No drug-testing labs have been established in the past decade; the number of drug inspectors has remained static.

In response, Rajanarasimha assured that steps would be taken to establish additional drug-testing labs. He instructed officials to prepare proposals for upgrading the lab in Hyderabad and to establish four labs to meet current requirements.

He directed preparations to increase the drug inspectors from 71 to a minimum of 150, as per the Mashelkar Committee recommendations, and promised to discuss sanctioning the posts with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

To prevent complacency and ensure impartial oversight, he instructed the drug inspectors to be randomly assigned checks outside their designated areas, promoting cross-district monitoring. Coordination between drug inspectors and the DMHOs was also emphasised for maintaining strict control over medicine prices and quality.

The DCA officials informed this year they had reported 21,639 inspections resulting in action against 3,416 establishments, including medical shops and manufacturing units.

The minister directed DCA Director-General VB Kamalasan Reddy to take stringent action against entities involved in the manufacture and sale of spurious drugs. He advised the deployment of additional drug inspectors in regions with a high concentration of pharmaceutical companies to enhance oversight. He recommended establishing a State vigilance cell dedicated to handling complaints and conducting surprise inspections to identify violations promptly.