Healthcare Safety

India and the US Join Hands For Healthcare Safety

The Government would set up two working groups— bureaucratic and technical in a period of six months

Dr Anbumani Ramados

India and the US have agreed to set up committees that will work together in establishing a regulatory body to check the quality and safety of food, drugs and other medical products.

This was jointly announced by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Minister of Health and Michael O Leavitt, US Secretary for Health during a press conference after addressing a Round Table Session on 'Indo-US Life Sciences, Health Sciences and Public health Collaborations', organised by the Confederation on Indian Industries (CII), recently in Chennai.

Ramadoss also said that the Government would set up two working groups, viz. bureaucratic and technical in a period of six months. The bureaucratic group will be headed by Dr Maharaj K Bhan, Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, while the technical group will be led by NK Ganguly, former Chief of Indian Council for Medical Research, RA Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Drug Controller of India.

Leavitt proposed a network among the nations not just India and the US to evolve a compatible regulatory system, which would enable all to access drugs and medical products. Answering on a question about the safety of imported medicines, Leavitt said, "I will appoint a team including representatives from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that both the Government can collaborate import safety in a couple of months."
Dr Ramadoss added, "Out of 57 drugs approved by the FDA for import, 52 are from India." He also assured to create opportunity and give financial assistance to improve the quality standards."We want the people of India to access safe products," said Dr Ramadoss, the need to bridge the differences is important as categorisation of medicines and food differ in the US and India. "What is considered drug in India is categorised as food product in the US," Dr Ramadoss hoped the cooperation will also help manufacturing units to achieve global standards. Andrew Von Eschenbach, Commissioner, FDA, Naresh Dayal, Secretary of Health, Govt of India, DN Kumar, President of CII and Dr Pratap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals group were also present.

EH News Bureau