Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: With India making testing of cough syrups before export “mandatory” from June 1, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has asked specified state laboratories to examine such samples from manufacturers on “top priority and issue the test report at the earliest”.
Cough syrup exporters will have to produce a certificate of analysis issued by a government laboratory before the product is exported, effective June 1, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification, newspapers reported on May 25.
The move came amid instances of quality concerns being raised abroad on cough syrups exported by Indian firms.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is a prominent manufacturer and exporter of medical products to the entire globe – ranging from highly developed countries to the LMIC (low and middle-income countries).
India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally, supplying over 50 per cent of global demand for various vaccines, about 40 per cent of generic demand in the US and about 25 per cent of all medicine in the UK.