KOCHI: The shortage of drug inspectors, inadequate testing facilities and lack of specially trained people have taken its toll on the drug control mechanism in the state. The state with an annual drug sale of about `4,400 crore has only 44 drug inspectors in place of 47 posts. And a drug inspector is bound to look at sales worth `100 crore, which is not at all possible, sources said. There are about 16,500 wholesale and retail pharmacies across the state. Apart from this, there are manufacturing units and palliative care centres, which also have to be inspected time to time. “As per the law, the shops should have to be inspected at least once in a year. But this could not be done owing to staff shortage,” they said. The drug inspectors, who would be engaged in court duties during the first few days of a month will get only about 20 days for the inspection of shops, they said. As such only about 10,000 drug stores could be inspected a year. The Mashelkar Committee had proposed a drug inspector for 50 manufacturing units and an inspector for 200 retail outlets.When this is the case of allopathic medicines, there are only three inspectors for ayurveda for the whole state. With more than 1,000 ayurvedic medicine manufacturers in the state and the industry having a turnover of about `600 crore, questions have been raised about quality checking. Drugs Controller of Kerala C S Satheesh Kumar said that the number of inspectors should have to be raised to at least 100 for effective monitoring and inspection. “Though the drug control system is effective, it has to be strengthened,” he said and added that proper and effective check could be ensured only if an inspection is conducted every six months.Stating that the system could become more effective if assistant drugs control offices were set up in all the districts, Satheesh said: “There are only six assistant drugs control offices now. We have given a representation to the government in this regard.” Another issue is that of the drug testing laboratory in the state. About 4,800 samples are collected a month from the market for testing but the lone laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram has the facility to check a maximum of 4,000 samples. “There is always a backlog of three to six months. The purpose of sampling will not be served if the report is not made available within a week. Satheesh said that the work for setting up a laboratory in Ernakulam was in full swing. There are also proposals for setting up drug-testing laboratories at Pathanamthitta, Thrissur and Kozhikode, he added.
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