No IAS or IPS officer head of Drug Control Administration

Hyderabad: Drug controllers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have demanded that no IAS or IPS officer should be made head of the Drug Control Administration of the state governments and that only technically qualified persons should head the wings as per the Act.

Secretary general of All India Drug Control Officers’ Confederation, Ravi Uday Bhaskar, said, “No other South Indian state has IAS and IPS as heads of the departments. Currently, in Telangana, there is no director general for the department. In AP, the department is headed by an IPS officer and we are demanding that only experts in the subject should head the departments.”

The Drug and Cosmetics rules state that drugs control organisations at Central and state levels should be headed by technically qualified and experienced persons.

The Confederation has also demanded for an intelligence unit to be set up to detect spurious drug manufacturers and irregularities in the pharma industry.

AIDCOC also seeks to separate from the Health department and wants a separate ministry for all pharmacy related institutions. “The drugs control organisations at the state level should be taken out of the control of Directorate of Health Services and should be made independent under the direct administrative control of the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals secretary,” said the AIDCOC.

“Subjects such as legislation, policy making, import, clinical trials and new drug approvals are with the Central government while licensing, including implementation, is with the state governments. Licensing and implementation, manufacture, sale and distribution of drugs and cosmetics are composite activities. Therefore, licensing for all activities should remain with one agency, the state government for effective implementation,” added Mr Bhaskar.

He added that there should be a single chain of command for all activities related to manufacture, sale and distribution of drugs.