The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Authority (FDCA) has said it settled 1,400 long-pending cases under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) in a single day through special courts.
“The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued an advisory to all State Food Safety Commissioners to hasten the disposal of the cases. Nearly a year ago, there was a Supreme Court judgement on the matter. But no state had acted, except Gujarat,” HG Koshia, Commissioner, Gujarat FDCA, at the inauguration of the 8th edition of Pharmac India 2017 here.
“On October 9, we had a special sitting and we settled 1,400 cases. This is a first in the country,” he added.
He added that faster disposal resulted in nearly ₹1.25 crore being added to government coffers by way of penalties. Of the 4,800 old PFA cases in Gujarat, 3,881 were found to be trivial mistakes after analysis.
According to Koshia, the pharma manufacturers in Gujarat have improved on quality parameters. Compared to a national failure ratio of 2.3 per cent currently (which was 12 per cent a few years ago) Gujarat has a failure ratio of 1.8 per cent.
Deepnath Roy Chowdhury, National President, Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA), pointed to some regulatory challenges arising in the current market scenario.
“Apart from pricing regulations and regulatory changes, if a company wants to launch products, it has to be checked if it is within the parameters of a certified formulation of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation,” he said..
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