Experts Seek National Pharma Quality Audit Framework

According to B Thirunavukkarasu, president of the Bangalore District Chemists and Druggists Association (BDCDA), India requires a national Pharma Quality Certification & Audit (PQCA) system under the Quality Council of India (QCI) to strengthen drug control.

We are seeing an alarming rise in counterfeit medications, untraceable PCD drugs, contaminated cough syrups, deceptive advertisements, and fake generics, all of which pose a serious threat to public health and national credibility, he continued, despite the fact that India is the Pharmacy of the World and that the issues facing our system extend beyond ethics, trust, and human life.

This situation is made worse by the unchecked growth of unregulated online and quick-commerce drug sales, as well as the absence of accountability and transparency in some regulatory machinery tiers.

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These changes are undermining trust in our healthcare system and damaging India's well-deserved standing as a world leader in reasonably priced, high-quality medications.

BDCDA calls on the Karnataka government, the Union Ministry of Health, and QCI to work together to assess the necessity of establishing the QCI-PQCA and to start a nationwide audit of drug testing labs in every state.

For example, the lessons learned from recent tragedies involving tainted cough syrups and counterfeit generic medications such as "AmoxyClav" are not unique incidents. They stand for a breakdown in the system.

 Unfortunately, rather than structural improvements, similar crises are frequently dealt with symbolic punishments after ritualistic blame games between central and state authorities.Because accountability is not comprehensive nor collective, the pattern persists unchecked.

 According to him, every level of failure costs lives, thus it must reach all the way from the government drug analyst and inspector to the drugs controller.