Stringent Regulation to Check Spurious Drugs Mooted by India

Minister of State for Health Sudip Bandyopadhyay has said that India is working to strengthen policies related to drug regulation in order to check spurious drugs in the market. Speaking at a two-day international workshop here on 'Patient Safety and Drug Detection Technology', Bandyopadhyay said: "Our current focus is to strengthen policies related to drug regulation and the regulatory framework. We propose to augment the regulatory capacities, both in the drug and food sectors in the 12th Five Year Plan."

The workshop seeks to share information on the appropriate use of detection technologies, and discuss global cooperation related to their use to promote drug safety.

"There is need to build the capacity of the drug regulatory authorities, for enhanced detection of spurious medicines. There is also a need to further strengthen the efforts, create a database, step up vigilance and strengthen laboratories in the country," said Health Secretary P.K. Pradhan.

The government is going to scale up the capacity of enforcement at the state level during the 12th Plan period (2012-17).

"Stringent regulatory control of medicines and enforcement by national medicines regulatory authorities can contribute significantly to prevention and detection of spurious medicines," said WHO Representative to India Nata Menabde.

The health ministry has been working to check spurious medicines.

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The Mashelkar Committee Report in 2003 had highlighted the issue of spurious medicines and made proposals to upgrade the Indian Drug Regulatory Standards and Guidelines to international standards so as to tackle the problem of spurious medicines.

Source-IANS