FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg visits India and confirms that honesty is the best policy. The feeling is not entirely reciprocated.
It boils down to a simple, foundational question: Can there be more than one global standard of pharmaceutical quality?
“If I have to follow U.S. standards in inspecting facilities supplying to the Indian market,” G. N. Singh, India’s top drug regulator, said in a recent interview with an Indian newspaper, “we will have to shut almost all of those.”
Does that mean US standards are too high or that Indian ones are too low? Well, where you stand depends on where you sit. And if you’re sober and sitting up straight, the answer is obvious.
According to a May 2012 article in The Lancet,
“To say that India's drug regulatory authority, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)-whose remit includes new drug approval, licensing of manufacturing facilities, and regulation of drug trials-is not fit for purpose seems a gross understatement.”
The CDSCO has a staff of 323, about 2 percent the size of the FDA, and its authority is limited to new drugs. According to a report in the New York Times, “The making of medicines that have been on the market at least four years is overseen by state health departments, many of which are corrupt or lack the expertise to oversee a sophisticated industry. Despite the flood of counterfeit drugs, Mr. Singh, India’s top drug regulator, warned in meetings with the FDA of the risk of overregulation.”
Hardly.
Per the Times, “This absence of oversight, however, is a central reason India’s pharmaceutical industry has been so profitable. Drug manufacturers estimate that routine F.D.A. inspections add about 25 percent to overall costs. In the wake of the 2012 law that requires the F.D.A. for the first time to equalize oversight of domestic and foreign plants, India’s cost advantage could shrink significantly.”
This profits-over-patients philosophy is entirely consistent with earlier “passing the rupee” comments of India’s Deputy Drug Controller, S. Eshwar Reddy.
When asked if Indian manufacturers -- which produce more than 40 per cent of the API used in the US and Europe -- should be more sympathetic with Western guidelines and regulations, Reddy said the opposite should be true.
He said any additional requirements made are the sole responsibility of the authority that issues them.
“If the importing country has specific GMP requirements, that is their responsibility to audit the facilities. It is the responsibility of the importing country not the exporting country.”
Per the Times, “The unease culminated Tuesday when a top executive at Ranbaxy — which has repeatedly been caught lying to the F.D.A. and found to have conditions such as flies “too numerous to count” in critical plant areas — pleaded with Dr. Hamburg at a private meeting with other drug executives to allow his products into the United States so that the company could more easily pay for fixes. She politely declined.”
How do you say chutzpah in Hindi?
Or Chinese? Or Arabic? Or Russian? Or Zulu?
