Gujarat FDCA beefs up regulatory machinery in state through promotions, mass transfers
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
November 11 , 2017
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In order to enforce effective compliance of drugs and medical device
rules, Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has promoted
37 drug regulatory officials and made mass transfers of 58 officials to
accord transparency and robustness in the existing drug regulatory
regime.
There are 1,407 sanctioned posts in Gujarat FDCA which
includes lab staff and field staff for better enforcement and
compliance.
The state regulator had earlier recruited a total of
42 drug control officers with opening of a new district office at
Rajkot headed by an assistant commissioner for better enforcement of
drug laws in the state.
Rajkot is one of the biggest in the seven
districts of Saurashtra region. There are in total three testing
laboratories in the state, two dedicated food testing laboratories in
Rajkot and Bhuj respectively and one state of the art food and drug
testing laboratory at Vadodara.
Another one is likely to come up
at Patan for which building has already been constructed and will soon
start with help from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation
(CDSCO). The Centre will bear 75 per cent of the cost as part of lab
upgradation programme and the rest 25 per cent will be borne by the
state government.
As of today, there are 26 district offices out
of 33 districts in Gujarat with 26 assistant commissioners, 4 joint
commissioners, 5 deputy commissioners, 49 senior drug inspectors and 89
drug inspectors with FDCA Commissioner at the helm of affairs.
Meanwhile,
the state drug regulator has also opened a new office at Ahmedabad on
the West of Sabarmati river front which will be headed by assistant
commissioner (Drugs) assisted by a team of 35 senior drug inspectors
including drug inspectors and assistant drug inspector.
The
existing food and drug testing laboratory in Vadodara has the capacity
to test 7,500 drug samples annually, of which the lab currently tests
around 6,000 to 6,500 samples in a year. With this capacity building
measure, the new drug testing lab will be able to augment its capacity
of drug testing and sampling to ensure access to safe drugs across the
state.
Meanwhile, Gujarat government has also formed a committee
to oversee recruitment of manpower for the state National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority (NPPA) cell for effective detection of ceiling price
violations in drugs and devices.
A total of seven personnel
including a scientific officer will be deputed for the purpose of
collection of data on price violations in the state based on the much
awaited financial support from the Central government.
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