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 To meet the growing demands of drug testing and regulation, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has procured high-end testing instruments for its Mumbai and Aurangabad labs to boost the testing capabilities.
The Maharashtra FDA has equipped its laboratory infrastructure with state-of-the-art analytical instruments including High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy, Ultraviolet (UV) Spectroscopy and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). These high-end technologies along with upgradation in manpower are expected to significantly enhance quality and capacity of drug testing thus ensuring compliance and patient safety.
Besides this, Maharashtra FDA has inspected all public testing laboratories approved and licensed by the Maharashtra FDA. These public testing labs are equipped with highly advanced and sophisticated instruments to help those manufacturers which lack such facility to assess the drug quality effectively.
Currently, drug testing labs operate in Mumbai, Aurangabad and Nagpur. The Mumbai laboratory currently has the capacity to test 4,000 drug samples, Aurangabad laboratory has the capacity to test 2,500 samples and Nagpur lab has capacity to test 1,000 samples. The aim is to increase drug testing capacity to over 30,000 samples annually.
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), which was initiated in 2016–17 and received fund sanctioning in 2018, aims to strengthen the drug testing ecosystem in Maharashtra. It operates under a financial partnership model, with 60% funding from the Central government and 40% from the State. The funding window was valid until March 31, 2025, with a total project cost of Rs. 136 crore.
The scheme is focused on upgrading existing labs and establishing new ones to meet the increasing demand for drug sample testing, ensuring public safety and enhancing regulatory compliance.
“The Pune Divisional Office and Laboratory, along with the Nashik Divisional Office and Laboratory, have completed their civil construction work under the CSS-State Regulatory Scheme. However, critical components such as partitioning, equipment procurement, lab establishment, and recruitment of trained personnel are still pending before the laboratories can become fully operational. The government plans to establish one lab per division, and has recently acquired land in Pen (Raigad district) for setting up a dedicated lab for the Konkan division,” according to official sources.
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