Telangana: Health Minister Calls for Action on Spurious Drugs

 Hyderabad: Health minister Damodar Rajanarsimha directed Drug Control Authority (DCA) Director-General V.B. Kamalasan Reddy to take stringent action against entities involved in the manufacture and sale of spurious drugs. Emphasising the threat to public health posed by such practices, he directed the officials to hold comprehensive and intensified inspections of pharmaceutical manufacturing units, retail pharmacies, and drugstores.

He was speaking at a meeting with officials from the DCA and the Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC) on Tuesday, with a focus on intensifying regulatory measures against the manufacture and distribution of substandard and counterfeit medicines.

Rajanarsimha directed Kamalasan Reddy to deploy additional drug inspectors in regions with a high concentration of pharmaceutical companies. The minister recommended establishing a state vigilance cell dedicated to handling complaints and conducting surprise inspections to identify violations promptly.

DCA officials told the minister that they had conducted 21,639 inspections so far this year, resulting in action against 3,416 establishments. Officials said that the state has only one drug testing lab, established in 1956, which can test 400 samples per month. This year, only 3,255 samples were tested due to capacity constraints.

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

The minister directed officials to prepare proposals to upgrade the existing lab and to establish four more. 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 Revanth Reddy.