GOA, INDIA — In 28 years in India’s pharmaceuticals sector, Rajiv Desai has never been busier.
Most of the last six months on his desk calendar is marked green, indicating visits to the 12 plants of Lupin, India’s No. 2 drugmaker, where Desai is a senior quality control executive. Only one day is red — a day off.
That’s what is needed these days to satisfy the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that standards are being met.
“In this sector, you’re only as good as your last inspection,” Desai said in his office in suburban Mumbai.
Often dubbed “the pharmacy of the world,” India is home to the most FDA-approved plants outside of the United States and supplies about 40 percent of the $70 billion worth of generic drugs sold in the country.
Damaged reputation
But sanctions and bans have badly damaged India’s reputation and slowed growth in the $16 billion sector. Drug exports fell in the fiscal year ending in March 2017.
More than 40 plants have been banned by the FDA for issues ranging from data fraud to hygiene since India’s then-largest drugmaker Ranbaxy was pulled up for serious violations in 2008.
Drug companies have spent millions of dollars on training, new equipment and foreign consultants. Yet the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance of the top 20 firms says its members still need at least five more years to get manufacturing standards and data reliability up to scratch.
The case of Lupin shows why.
In the next few months, the FDA is expected to clear Lupin’s Goa plant of problems found in 2015, Desai said.
However, the agency also published a notice last week citing issues with data storage at its plant in Pithampur, central India.
If companies want to continue to sell into the world’s biggest health care market, they must keep constant vigilance.
Asked about Lupin’s case, the FDA said in a statement it did not “comment on compliance matters,” but said generally: “India’s regulatory infrastructure must keep pace to ensure that relevant quality and safety standards are met.”
Form 483
India has its own standards body, the Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), which maintains that its quality controls are stringent enough to ensure drugs are safe.
The FDA has taken matters into its own hands and gradually expanded in India to more than a dozen full-time staff.
Inspections are frequent and increasingly unannounced. If the agency finds problems, it issues a Form 483, a notice outlining the violations, which if not resolved can lead to a warning letter and in worst case, a ban.
Violations range from hygiene, such as rat traps and dirty laboratories, to inadequate controls on systems that store data, leaving it open to tampering.
None of the violations the FDA has cited in India have explicitly said the drugs are unsafe, and when companies are banned by the FDA they can sell into other markets, including in the developing world, until the bans are lifted.
There are also no studies showing that the drugs have harmed anyone in the world. But by definition, the notices are issued when the FDA finds conditions that might harm public health.
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