FDA, Ayush Dept in blame game as Gurugram unit comes under scanner
BQ: Firms cannot manufacture disinfectants without obtaining FDA licence.” Ashok Meena, FDA Commissioner
BQ: FDA has no business raiding a unit licensed by Ayush Department it.
Dr Satish Khatkar, licensing authority, Ayush Dept
Sanjay Yadav
Gurugram, June 24
The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and Ayush Department of Haryana are in blame game over a raid conducted by the former on Tuesday at a disinfectant manufacturing unit in Gurugram.
While FDA Commissioner Ashok Meena says firms cannot manufacture such disinfectants without obtaining licence from his department, Dr Satish Khatkar, licensing authority under the Ayush Department, asserts that the FDA has no business raiding a unit licensed by it.
The conflict between the two departments comes as with the increase in the demand for sanitisers and disinfectants due to the Covid pandemic, several manufacturers have started taking the easier ayurveda route to skip the stringent rules under the allopathic system.
A unit manufacturing sanitisers or disinfectants under the allopathic system has to install sophisticated equipment like 20 micron air filters and machinery complying with WHO good manufacturing practice (GMP) before it gets a licence, while those producing it under the Ayush licence use simple and cheaper machinery.
On Monday, a team of the FDA took samples of a disinfectant from a supermart in DLF, Phase 4. For the purpose of verification of the product, the team visited a unit in Gurugram that manufactured that product.
Meena said an FDA licence was required to manufacture that disinfectant, and the Ayush licence that the firm had was not valid for the product it was manufacturing.
“The surface disinfectants are meant for disinfection of dead surfaces. These do not fit in the definition of ayurvedic medicines, which are for internal or external use of human beings or animals and are not for surfaces,” said a senior officer of the FDA.
Meanwhile, the owner of the firm blamed the internal tussle between the Drugs Control Department and the Ayush Department for the raid on his firm and alleged that he was being harassed unnecessarily.
