Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana is planning to set up four new drug testing labs in the state, in addition to improving the existing one. This decision comes after the number of medical shops in the state doubled from 20,000 to 45,000 over the last decade. Currently, there is only one drug testing lab in the state.
Health Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha shared this information during a high-level meeting on Tuesday. He met with officials from the Drug Control Authority (DCA) and the Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC). The meeting focused on ways to control the production and distribution of substandard and fake medicines.
Officials pointed out that the existing drug testing lab was built in 1956 and can test only 400 samples per month. This year, only 3,255 samples were tested due to limited capacity. No new labs have been set up in the last decade, and the number of drug inspectors has stayed the same.
To address these issues, the minister promised to set up additional drug testing labs in the state. He asked officials to prepare proposals to upgrade the current lab in Hyderabad and establish four more labs to meet the growing need.
He also directed officials to increase the number of drug inspectors from 71 to at least 150, following the Mashelkar Committee recommendations. He said he would discuss the approval of these new posts with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
To ensure fair inspections, the minister suggested that drug inspectors should be randomly assigned to check areas outside their usual zones. This would promote cross-district monitoring. He also stressed the importance of coordination between drug inspectors and District Medical and Health Officers (DMHOs) to maintain control over medicine prices and quality.
The DCA officials reported conducting 21,639 inspections this year. These inspections led to action against 3,416 establishments, which included medical shops and manufacturing units.
The minister instructed DCA Director-General VB Kamalasan Reddy to take strict action against those involved in producing and selling fake drugs. He also recommended sending more drug inspectors to areas with a high number of pharmaceutical companies for better oversight. Additionally, he suggested setting up a State vigilance cell to handle complaints and carry out surprise inspections to catch any violations quickly.
