The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) may soon
commence a major recruitment drive to strengthen the regulatory
machinery at the Centre as the current strength of staff is highly
inadequate according to, Dr G N Singh, Drugs Controller General of
India.
Responding to a query from Pharmabiz, Dr Singh said CDSCO
has made a detailed proposal for recruiting sufficient staff and
submitted to the government of India. Response of the government is
awaited. Once the proposal is cleared, the appointments will be
undertaken on a fast-track basis. With that the staff crunch will be
solved and the total strength should be going up to 5000 in next five
years. Currently CDSCO has only 340 sanctioned posts including
administrative personnel. But not all of them are recruited.
“Compared
to US FDA, the manpower strength of CDSCO is far less, but we are still
not weak. US FDA has 13000 posts of technical and administrative staff.
We are facing the staff crunch for some time and hopefully it will be
solved in five years with the recruitment programme envisaged now. Until
a few years ago, the situation was worse,” Dr Singh told Pharmabiz.
Crippled
with staff shortage, the central regulatory office is struggling to
manage the daily operations now. The number of deputy drug controllers
and ADCs is less than ten and the posts of drug inspectors have not been
filled up fully. With these limited staff CDSCO is handling 20,000
applications, attend over 200 meetings and more than 11000 industry and
public representatives. The institution has to respond to around 150
court cases annually, sources from the central agency informed.
According
to Dr Singh, the central organisation is also planning to set up a
CDSCO Estate in Chennai for its regional office. The present laboratory
functioning near Egmore in Chennai will be developed into a modern drug
testing lab with all facilities. After demolishing the present building,
a new one will be constructed on the site. The estate will contain,
apart from the modern lab, a training academy and administrative office.
DCGI said a proposal has been given to the central government to acquire five acres of land in Chennai for the purpose.
