Provides training to enhance skills
Usha Sharma
Mumbai
Gujarat (Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) has recently recruited 59 senior drug inspectors and six drug inspectors and has been training them to enhance their skills further and familiarise them with FDCA’s systems. The state is a known pharmaceutical hub, with good growth potential but accompanied by many regulatory issues. It is hoped that the newly recruited inspectors will help the speedy resolution of these issues.
Dr HG Koshia, Commissioner, FDCA said, “In the last month, we have finished the recruitment process of 65 new drug inspectors and now with the help of US FDA’s representatives, retired drug inspectors from the state and senior industry stakeholders, we are providing training to address different industry issues.”
He added that this is the first time in the history of FDCA, Gujarat, that nearly 60 officers have been recruited at one go by the Government of Gujarat.
As part of this induction process, these newly recruited drug inspectors will be taken on visits to firms raided by the FDCA, in order to make them understand crucial factors and to provide experiences. Koshia is of the opinion that this process will help them to get familiar about Gujarat FDCA’s systems and processes.
Gujarat has 29,000 retailers and 3,500 licensed manufactures for allopathic, ayurvedic, homeopathic and cosmetic products. For the past many years, there were vacant positions for drug inspectors. Koshia hopes that the enhanced manpower will facilitate the functioning of the department.
The training programme for the newly recruited drug inspectors, which started on June 4 will go on till June 29. The training is currently being conducted at Gujarat FDCA headquarters in Gandhinagar.
During the interactive sessions, the US FDA officials made the newly recruited drugs inspectors/ senior drugs inspectors aware about the vision, inspection procedure, timings, the facts and check points of inspection, current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), Process Analytical Technology (PAT), as well as safety, quality and efficacy of drugs. While providing live demonstrations new recruiters were trained for mock raids, raids, sampling process, and other related issues.