Maharashtra FDA Boosts Drug Testing Capacity with Advanced Labs

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made substantial improvements to its testing facilities to address the continued high demand for drug regulation and quality testing.

The FDA’s laboratories in Mumbai and Aurangabad have been enhanced with high-quality analytical technologies including High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, Ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS).

These upgrades, together with additional manpower, will increase the testing capacity and the compliance to safety and quality standards associated with drug testing.

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In addition to its own upgrades, the FDA has inspected all public testing laboratories licensed by the FDA. The laboratories were all built with quality, analytical equipment in accordance with FDA specifications and provide an invaluable service to a manufacturer who does not have their own testing laboratory and thus, can help provide responsible safety assessments across the public.

Maharashtra has three FDA drug testing laboratories in Mumbai (4,000), Aurangabad (2,500), and Nagpur (1,000) and the FDA hopes to increase the annual testing capacity to over 30,000 drug samples. Backed by the Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched in 2016–17 with a total outlay of Rs. 136 crore, this initiative—funded 60% by the Centre and 40% by the State—is set to further strengthen Maharashtra’s drug testing ecosystem before its funding window closes in March 2025.

“The Pune Divisional Office and Laboratory, along with the Nashik Divisional Office and Laboratory, have completed their civil construction work under the CSS-State Regulatory Scheme... The government plans to establish one lab per division, and has recently acquired land in Pen (Raigad district) for setting up a dedicated lab for the Konkan division,” according to official sources.