Panel Starts Investigation of India's Drug Regulatory Authority

India's regulatory authority, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, has not had a particularly good start to 2012. Accounts of corruption and incompetence have been echoed in numerous reports, and now a panel of experts is set to dig further into the agency in the hopes of recommending needed reforms.

The list of purported deficiencies at the agency has grown substantially in recent months. The agency has been accused at various times of exercising lax clinical trials oversight, failing to protect clinical trial participants, colluding with the industry it regulates, lacking the resources necessary to effectively regulate, failing to appropriately examine drugs before approving them, and more.

After the Indian parliament produced a scathing report detailing many of the above deficiencies, legislators said they would convene a panel to look into CDSCO and its drug regulatory authority, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).

The three-member panel met for the first time on 7 June 2012, reports The Economic Times of India, and is expected to complete a report detailing recommended courses of action by July 2012.

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The Economic Times of India - Panel to look into Drug Controller General of India's working meets