Hyderabad: Despite extensive inspections against illegal manufacturing and stocking of drugs and substandard drugs, the Drugs Control Administration is unable to test many samples. Sharing details of the inspections at a high-level review meeting chaired by the health minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, DCA officials said that 21,639 inspections have been carried out so far this year. These resulted in action against 3,416 establishments, including medical shops and manufacturing units, an official said.
However, officials highlighted a pressing limitation, with only one drug testing lab in the state, established in 1956, which has a maximum testing capacity of 400 samples per month.
“This year, only 3,255 samples were tested due to capacity constraints. Notably, number of medical shops surged from 20,000 in 2014 to 45,000 in 2024, while no new drug testing laboratories have been established in past decade, and the number of drug inspectors remained static. Steps will be taken to establish additional drug testing labs in Telangana,” said the minister. Officials were asked to prepare proposals for upgrading the current lab in Hyderabad and to establish four new laboratories to meet current requirements. Additionally, the minister asked officials to increase the number of drug inspectors from the existing 71 to a minimum of 150 as per the Mashelkar Committee recommendations and promised to discuss sanctioning of these posts with CM Revanth Reddy.
DCA director general VB Kamalasan Reddy was asked to take stringent action against entities involved in the sale of spurious drugs.
Highlighting the public health threat posed by such practices, the minister said that an intensified inspection drive should be taken up across pharmaceutical manufacturing units, retail pharmacies and drug stores. He also suggested establishing a vigilance cell dedicated to handling complaints and conducting surprise inspections to identify violations promptly.Telangana Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation was asked to monitor the procurement process of medicines supplied to govt hospitals. and conduct random sampling before and after procurement to ensure quality. Any non-compliance or identification of substandard medicines would result in blacklisting of the supplier, officials said.
