New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) The Union Health Ministry has launched the State Health Regulatory Excellence Index, a first-of-its-kind national initiative to benchmark and strengthen state drug regulatory systems through a transparent and data-driven framework.
The index was launched on Tuesday by Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava virtually in the presence of Drug Controller General of India Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi.
The initiative, proposed by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), aims to improve the performance of state drug regulatory authorities, ensuring that drug safety and quality standards are consistently met, the ministry said in a statement.
In a meeting attended virtually by the health secretaries, principal health secretaries and the drugs controllers from states and Union Territories, Srivastava reiterated that the health of all citizens begins with the safety, quality, and efficacy of the medicines they consume.
Ensuring their quality is the government’s commitment, she said.
“Our federal structure is designed to regulate a complex and globally significant pharmaceutical industry. The only way forward is cooperative action to ensure medicines made in India are trusted everywhere, starting with every citizen in India,” the Union health secretary said.
Srivastava highlighted the crucial role played by states and Union Territories in ensuring quality manufacturing and distribution in India and the need for recognising and supporting their best practices and growth.
“States have strong regulatory certification. State Health Regulatory Excellence Index (SHRESTH) is a virtual gap assessment tool for states to assess their current position and help towards maturity certification,” she added.
Highlighting India’s achievement of WHO ML3 status for vaccines, Srivastava stressed the next step is to elevate medicines to the same global standard, advancing international harmonisation and reinforcing India’s role as the “pharmacy of the world”.
Several upcoming initiatives were also outlined, including the extension of the Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) dashboard to all states, the proposed symposium on Drug Regulatory Systems, and the expansion of joint training and audits.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Raghuvanshi highlighted that states will be divided into two categories — manufacturing and primarily distribution — and will be ranked accordingly on the SHRESTH index.
SHRESTH will have 27 indices for Manufacturing States across five key themes — human resources, infrastructure, licensing activities, surveillance activities and responsiveness — and 23 indices for primarily distribution states.
States will submit the data on predefined metrics to CDSCO, which will be collected by the 25th day of every month, and these metrics will be scored on the first day of next month and shared with all states and Union Territories, Dr Raghuvanshi said. PTI PLB NSD NSD
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