Initiate action against spurious drug sellers: Telangana Health Minister

At a high-level review meeting with officials from the DCA and the Telangana Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC), he emphasized the public health threat posed by such practices,

He asked for a comprehensive and intensified inspection drive across pharmaceutical manufacturing units, retail pharmacies, and drugstores and advised the deployment of additional drug inspectors in regions with a high concentration of pharmaceutical companies to enhance oversight.

The Minister underscored the critical importance of uncompromising standards in drug quality and directed the setup of complaint cells at district Collectorates to facilitate easy filing of grievances regarding drug quality.

At the State-level, he recommended establishing a State Vigilance Cell dedicated to handling complaints and conducting surprise inspections to identify violations promptly.

The DCA officials briefed the Minister on the extensive inspections conducted this year, reporting 21,639 inspections resulting in actions against 3,416 establishments, including medical shops and manufacturing units, etc.

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, the number of medical shops has surged from 20,000 in 2014 to 45,000 in 2024, while no new drug testing laboratories have been established in the past decade, and the number of drug inspectors has remained static.

In response, the Minister assured that steps would be taken to establish additional drug testing labs in Telangana. He instructed officials to prepare proposals for upgrading the current lab in Hyderabad and to establish four new laboratories to meet current requirements. Additionally, he directed preparations to increase the number of drug inspectors from the existing 71 to a minimum of 150, as per Mashelkar committee recommendations, and promised to discuss sanctioning these positions with the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

To prevent complacency and ensure impartial oversight, the Minister instructed that drug inspectors be randomly assigned inspections outside their designated areas, promoting cross-district monitoring. Coordination between drug inspectors and District Medical and Health Officers (DMHOs) was also emphasized for maintaining strict control over medicine prices and quality.

The Minister directed officials to tighten surveillance on pharmacies and establishments selling habit-forming drugs and to act against those flouting legal stipulations. The TGMSIDC, with support from the DCA, was instructed to rigorously monitor the procurement process of medicines supplied to government hospitals, conducting random sampling before and after procurement to ensure quality.

Any non-compliance or identification of substandard medicines would result in the blacklisting of the concerned supplier. Further, the TGMSIDC’s central medical stores should undergo regular inspections by drug inspectors to ensure proper storage conditions and adherence to standards for medicines supplied to government hospitals.

The Health Department was committed to ensure patients in government hospitals receive only quality-assured medicines, he added.