Patna to get central drug testing lab

PATNA: THE LABORATORY

WILL ALLOW TESTING OF DRUG SAMPLES, MOST OF WHICH NOW HAVE TO BE SENT OUTSIDE THE STATE, COSTING

THE EXCHEQUER A

HUGE MONEY

Patnawillsoonhaveacentraldrugtestinglaboratory—the first in Bihar and after Kolkata and Guwahati in eastern India.

Thelaboratorywill allow testing of drug samples, most of whichnowhavetobesentoutside thestate,costingtheexchequera hugemoney.TheloneBiharDrug Control Laboratory in Agamkuan(Patna)isalmostdefunctas it allows testing of only limited drugs, excluding antibiotics, lifesaving and parenteral drugs in absence of adequate number of trained personnel.

Thelaboratorywouldcomeon the AIIMS-Patna residential campus, which earlier used to host the medical college.

ACentralteam,headedbythe director, Central Drug Testing Laboratory, Chandigarh, RA Singh,wasinPatnalastweekfor site inspection.

If sources are to be believed, the team has given a favourable reportforthesettingupofthelab- oratory. However, Singh did not confirm when HT reached him for comments. “We done the site inspectionandhavesentareport to the health ministry. I cannot commentanythingbeyondthisat this juncture,” Singh said.

“We received a communication from the health ministry... I’ve given consent to setting up thelaboratoryonourresidential campus,” said Dr PK Singh, director, AIIMS-Patna.

Bihar drug controller Ravindra Kumar Sinha said, “The central drug testing laboratorycum-office will come up on the 45,000squarefeetareainitiallyon the AIIMS campus. The site inspection has been done by a Central team which was here on November 8.”

ACentralteamwaspreviously here for inspection in June. The Centrewill beartheentirecostof setting up the laboratory.

This would be the second central drug testing laboratory in eastern India after the one in Guwahati.Kolkataalreadyhasa CentralDrugLaboratory,which is the appellate laboratory in India.

The central team headed by RA Singh comprised deputy director Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), NewDelhi,SKTanwar,assistant drugcontroller,CDSCOKolkata, ArupChatterjee,druginspectors Vikas Roy from Kolkata as well as Sachchidanand Prasad, Rajesh Sinha and Sandeep Sah from Patna.

BhagwanChoudhary, a Bhojpur man who went missing from Porbandar in Gujarat, 8-months-ago, has been traced to Pakistan jail by the ministry of external affairs (MEA).

Jagdishpur’s BDO, Prabhakar Kumar told HT, the Bhojpur administration recently received a letter from state home department, informing it of the development.

The letter was routed to the MEA via ministry of home affairs (MHA). The Centre has askedthedistrict administration to identify the address of Bhagwan, who is lodged in jail on charges of spying.

AVINASH KUMAR AND

PRASHANT RANJAN

PATNA/ARA: