Laboratory in works for 6 years, mars Himachal's fight against fake drugs

Ambika Sharma

Solan, February 23

An inordinate delay in setting up a modern drug testing lab at Baddi has marred the hill state’s fight against substandard and spurious medicines. Samples collected from pharmaceutical units are sent to authorised laboratories like Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory (RDTL), Chandigarh, and Central Drugs Laboratory, Kolkata. Since the two labs cater to several states, it takes months to get reports.

Sample this…

• Samples of propofol injections made by Nixi Labs sent to Chandigarh lab in September last year, report received in December
• Lab reports of drugs seized from Baddi’s Trizal Formulation, an unlicensed unit, too received after three months

For instance, samples of propofol injections manufactured by Kala Amb-based Nixi Laboratories were sent to RTDL in September last year, but the report was received in December.

Similarly, lab reports of loose yellow tablets and powder seized from Trizal Formulation, Baddi, were received after three months. Spurious drugs worth crores were seized from this unlicensed pharmaceutical unit.

The work on setting up a modern drug testing lab at Baddi was started in 2017. Though the civil work was completed years ago, the equipment is yet to be procured. The state’s lone lab, Composite Testing Laboratory, Kandaghat, has only limited facilities. It is ill-equipped for microbiology -related tests. It can’t even test injections. Neeraj Kumar, Director, Health Safety and Regulation, said, “The work to procure instruments, some from abroad, is underway. The authorised agency, was given orders in September last year. We hope it will be able to procure the instruments by April.” He attributed the delay to Covid.