NEW DELHI: The government has decided to initiate investigation against suspected exporters of substandard drugs on information provided by its missions abroad as it seeks to project the country as a reliable supplier.
The commerce department has advised missions in countries that import drugs from India to inform Centre of every complaint they receive on such dubious exports.
If the exporter is proved guilty, its import-export code will be revoked and the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) will cancel its licence, DK Mittal, additional secretary in the commerce department, told ET.
After consulting the chemicals and petrochemicals department and the DCGI, the commerce department has decided to act promptly on complaints against exporters of substandard drugs to ensure that they do not hurt the country’s image, he added.
In the normal course, action is initiated against an exporter of substandard drugs after an official complaint by the importing country. However, the government will now investigate such cases and take action soon after it gets information from its missions abroad.
“India has always been a supplier of quality drugs. We want to ascertain that we take all possible measures to ensure that our export standards are maintained,” Mr Mittal said.
Recently, Nigeria confiscated a consignment of spurious medicines with made-in-India labels that had been shipped from China. Such incidents too hurt the country’s credibility as a reliable supplier.
Beijing has assured New Delhi that action would be taken against rogue exporters, and the Centre would continuously ensure that India’s reputation is not affected, Mr Mittal said.
Of the Indian drug exports worth Rs 30,000 crore annually, about 15% are shipped to Africa. Other major markets for Indian medicines are South America and south-east Asia.
Source : The Economic Times