Quality control: Drugs to undergo stress tests
NEWDELHI: lndia’s drug regulator is set to propose amendments to the existing Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, to make “stability testing” mandatory for all drugs sold in the country before they are deemed suitable for use by patients. “Stability testing will be made compulsory for all drugs. An advisory letter has been sent to the state drug controllers and a notification amending the rules is likely to come soon,” GN Singh, drug controller general of India (DCGI), said.
Once the rules take effect, pharma firms will have to subject their products to quality tests to make sure that drugs do not lose their potency and the expiry dates printed on the packaging are based on the test results.
“We will also get random checks done from the samples picked up from the market and if any discrepancies are found, the companies will have to shell out fines and may lose their license,” added Singh.
Mandated global, stability testing is the process of subjecting drugs to different tests such as varying degrees of temperature and sunlight. In India, such tests are mandatory only for patented and proprietary medicines.
The Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) has proposed making stability tests compulsory for all drugs, including active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that go into medical formulations.
The pharmaceutical industry though, is unhappy about the proposal to widen the ambit of the stability tests. “As of now the stability tests are carried out on formulations. If they widen the ambit and include all drugs, this will mean adding APIs and capsules too. It takes at least 6-9 months to carry out stability tests. There will be practical problems to get this done and we have been requesting the CDSCO to not include all the drugs into it,” a pharma lobby group representative said on condition of anonymity.
Various stakeholders including pharma lobby groups, Confederation of Indian Industry (CI I ), Federation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (FOPE), Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) met CDSCO officials on November 14, citing their problems.
However, CDSCO officials say they are unlikely to yield.