Centre forms panel to prepare road map for health care regulations

The Centre on Monday formed a committee under the pharmaceuticals department secretary to take forward suggestions from the two-day brainstorming conclave on health care regulations in India, sources said.

The committee will present a road map within the next one month.

The government sources said the committee members include Drugs Controller General of India Rajeev Raghuvanshi, joint secretary (drugs) of the Union health ministry, and nodal officers from states.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the deliberations at the Chintan Shivir gave an opportunity to all the participants “to deliberate on the building blocks of such a forward looking inclusive, holistic, and comprehensive regulatory framework that would set the vision and meet the requirements of the next 25 years on the three levels of policy, priorities, and implementation.

The Centre has begun a series of chintan shivirs with the country’s top drug regulators, senior government policy officials, industry representatives, and stakeholders to deliberate on pathways for cohesive and synergistic approaches for building robust and resilient regulatory systems. Mandaviya inaugurated the conclave in Hyderabad on Sunday. On Monday, another chintan shivir began in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park organised by the AYUSH Ministry.  

During the two-day Hyderabad conclave, regulators, policymakers and industry stakeholders discussed ways to make the country’s drug regulatory systems transparent, predictable, and verifiable through principles of uniform standards, sturdy structures for compliance and enforcement, and capacity enhancement, the ministry said.

Major proposals like having a centralised drug registration system under the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to keep close tabs on the quality of drugs produced were also deliberated upon.

“It was also presented that technology can play the role of a facilitator and enabler for uniformity, transparency, and accountability. The need for a uniform portal with a national database with integrated legacy systems was also discussed,” the ministry said.

“Several participants underlined the importance of creating citizen facing measures to strengthen confidence on the quality of drugs along with portals for grievances, effective recall measures, etc,” the statement added.

In addition, oversight of the supply chain was also proposed for quality assurance.