National Food and Drug Control Policy to be formed on the basis of Deliberations held at Bhopal

Bhopal: The National Food and Drug Control Policy will be formulated on the basis of two-day deliberations in 'International Conclave on Best Practices in Drug Regulation' held at Bhopal. All the Food and Drug Controllers of the state will be linked by making a website for this by the Central Government. They will present their problems and suggestions, on this basis the policy will be amended. The structure of drug system will be strengthened to ensure that everybody should get quality medicines at reasonable cost in all the states of the country. Additional Secretary, Central Public Health and Family Welfare, Dr. R.K. Vatsa gave instructions to Dr. G.N.Singh Drug Controller of India to prepare the framework on the basis of the deliberations in Bhopal and submit it to the Central Government.

In the conclave today, deliberations on procedures’ simplification, uniformity of rules across the country, the real value of medicines, easy availability and innovation, experience, guidance provided in the field of the World Health Organization regulatory, global benchmarking tool of the World Health Organization besides innovations recently carried out in the medicine production regulatory of India, sharing of best practices by representative states, Good regulatory practices of Madhya Pradesh  and effective monitoring of supply chain etc. have been discussed. Representatives from different states also gave their suggestions and presentations to strengthen the regulatory system in India. In addition, deliberations were made on regulatory implementation in the border States, anti-microbial resistance and its interfaces with regulators.

Representative of the World Health Organization said that India should curb unnecessary use of antibiotics in malaria. It reduces immunity to the body and should be used only on medical advice. It should be widely publicized in public. Recommendations on deliberations will be handed over to the Union Health Ministry.

Additional Secretary, Ministry of Public Health, Government of India Dr. R.K. Vatsa, Secretary Mr. C.K. Mishra, Joint Secretary Sudhir Kumar, Sudhansh Pant, Principal Secretary (Health) Smt. Gauri Singh, Drug Controller General of India Dr. GN Singh, President of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority Bhupendra Singh, Representative of the World Health Organization in India Dr. Henk Bekedam, State Health Commissioner and the Food and Drug Controller Dr. Pallavi Jain Govil besides Food and Drug Controller of other states including eminent drug manufacturers participated in the seminar.-WTN