Halt inspections, help MSMEs, drug cos' body tells Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya

Haryana Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (HPMA) has urged health minister Mansukh Mandaviya to put on hold the risk-based inspections being carried out by the drug regulatory authority after many MSME units were issued stop production orders for manufacturing substandard drugs.

"We had met the minister and urged him to help the MSME sector. We want the officials at the regulatory body to become facilitators for the small and medium scale industry and hand hold us," said RL Sharma, president, HPMA.

He said the risk-based inspections should be stopped for the time being. "The MSME needs time to upgrade as it requires funds and the government should help the sector," added Sharma.

As reported by ET last week, more than 15% of medicines produced by small companies in India failed to meet quality standards compared with the national average of about 2%, a government report on a recent survey said. In the government's latest risk-based inspections of MSME - which have been on since December 2022 - 41 (15.1%) were declared to be not of standard quality (NSQ) out of the 271 samples analysed, said the report which has been reviewed by ET.

It has been seen that the share of nonstandard quality medicines manufactured in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) is seven times more than the national average.