Need for a New Drugs Bill

After a legislative logjam (since 2011) with respect to regulating the pharmaceuticals industry, the new government at the centre has the opportunity to introduce the much-needed changes to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The amendment bill, introduced in Parliament on 29 August 2013, aimed to promote rational regulation of safe and effective allopathic drugs. That bill would have been yet another patch on an Act which has already been stretched beyond breaking
point. It would have done little to provide a rigorous foundation for putting safety, effectiveness, rationality and need at the heart of the country’s drug regulatory system. It is to be hoped that the government will make a complete overhaul of the Act one of its highest priorities.