Telangana To Set Up Four New Drug Testing Labs

Hyderabad:  Health Minister C. Damodar Rajanarasimha chaired a high-level review meeting on Tuesday with officials from the Drug Control Administration (DCA) and the Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC) to announce plans to establish four new drug testing laboratories in the State to address growing demands and challenges in monitoring drug quality effectively.

The DCA officials reported that Telangana currently has only one drug testing laboratory, set up in 1956, with a maximum testing capacity of 400 samples per month. Acknowledging the limitations, he directed officials to prepare proposals for upgrading the existing facility in Hyderabad and establishing four additional labs to meet the increased need.

To combat the public health risks posed by substandard and counterfeit drugs, the Minister instructed DCA Director General V.B. Kamalasan Reddy to take stringent action against entities involved in the production and sale of spurious medicines. He ordered an intensified inspection campaign targeting pharmaceutical manufacturing units, retail pharmacies, and drugstores.

He also called for deploying extra drug inspectors in areas with a high concentration of pharmaceutical companies to enhance regulatory oversight. The Minister highlighted the importance of maintaining uncompromising standards in drug quality, directing the establishment of complaint cells at district collectorates to facilitate public reporting of drug quality concerns. At the State-level, he proposed creating a State Vigilance Cell to manage complaints and conduct surprise inspections.

During the meeting, DCA officials shared statistics on inspections carried out this year. They reported conducting 21,639 inspections, resulting in actions against 3,416 establishments, including medical shops and manufacturing units. Despite these extensive checks, the state’s sole lab tested only 3,255 samples this year due to capacity constraints, the officials told him.

They said that the number of medical shops has more than doubled, from 20,000 in 2014 to 45,000 in 2024. However, no new drug testing labs have been set up in the past decade, and the number of drug inspectors has remained at 71.

In response to this challenge, the Minister directed officials to increase the number of inspectors to at least 150, aligning with the Mashelkar Committee’s recommendations. He assured that he would discuss the sanctioning of these additional positions with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

Mr. Narasimha instructed TGMSIDC, in collaboration with DCA, to enforce rigorous monitoring of medicine procurement for government hospitals. Random sampling of medicines will occur both before and after procurement to ensure quality standards. Any instances of substandard medicines identified in this process will result in blacklisting of the supplier, he said.