Procedure for submission of cough syrups for Testing

Mandatory Testing of Cough Syrup before ExportProcedure for submission of cough syrups for Testing

Cough syrup exporters will have to undertake testing of their products at specified Government Laboratories and obtain Production of Certificate of Analysis with effect from June 1 before getting permission for the outbound shipments

Ministry of Commerce & Industry has issued a Notification No.06/2023 dated 22nd May 2023 permiting export of cough syrups, subject to the export sample being tested and production of Certificate of Analysis (COA) issued by any of the Central Government Laboratories and any NABL Accredited State Drug Testing Laboratory.

The specified Central Government labs include Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Regional Drug Testing Lab (RDTL – Chandigarh), Central Drugs Lab (CDL – Kolkata), Central Drug Testing Lab (CDTL – Chennai Hyderabad, Mumbai), RDTL (Guwahati)] and the NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited drug testing labs of State Governments

In order to facilitate the process of testing of cough syrups at the said laboratories, the following are the pre-requisite requirements for submission of samples :

  1. Covering letter from the Manufacturer / Exporter on Letterhead addressed to concerned Laboratory
  2. Manufacturing License of the product for Export purpose
  3. Export Order
  4. Representative sample from the export consignment
  5. Thrice the quantity required for performing complete analysis of the sample
  6. Qualitative composition of product including excipients
  7. Certificate of analysis by the manufacturer of the particular batch and method of analysis (STP)
  8. Reference / Working standard (with traceability certificate) and placebo as applicable

Source: https://www.dgft.gov.in/CP/?opt=notification

Certification Schemes from AMTZ 

Program on Healthcare Textiles Processing Facility Certification Scheme and Program on Biomedical Equipment Maintenance Certification (BEMC) Scheme 

Program on Healthcare Textiles Processing Facility Certification Scheme  

The scheme aims to ensure the quality of healthcare textiles, including personal protective equipment (PPE), by certifying the facilities that process them. Scheme covers Multiple-use healthcare Textiles to be processed only as Single-use healthcare Textiles are not meant to be used again.   

Program on Biomedical Equipment Maintenance Certification (BEMC) Scheme    This voluntary scheme applies to maintenance process certification including Testing and verification of MEDICAL EQUIPMENT and SYSTEM (combination of medical equipment), or parts of such equipment or systems, which need maintenance on a periodic basis.

This voluntary scheme can be implemented by the hospital through biomedical maintenance department, biomedical maintenance by the manufacturer and third-party maintenance provider.  

These voluntary schemes are an initiative of AMTZ, in collaboration with the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) and Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI).


Date: 27th May 2023

Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00pm IST

Mode – Virtual Mode / Webinar

Guidelines – AMD-CF Scheme

Govt releases Guidelines for scheme for Assistance to Medical Devices Clusters

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has come out with the guidelines for the scheme for Assistance to Medical Device Clusters for Common Facilities (AMD-CF) with proposed financial outlay of Rs. 300 crore to offer financial assistance to strengthen the existing and new medical device clusters through creation of common infrastructure facilities

The Scheme, with two sub-schemes, is expected to help in boosting the domestic manufacturing capacity and improving the quality of clusters for sustainable growth of the medical devices sector.

The scheme further intends to support central or state governments, institutions, or organisations to establish or strengthen the testing laboratories for medical devices to meet the needs arising due to the roll out of the licensing regime of the Medical Devices Rules (MDR), 2017.

The Scheme has two components or sub schemes – Assistance for Common Facilities (CF) and Assistance for Testing Facilities (TF) – and would be running for three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26. The tenure of the scheme is from the financial year 2023-24 to the financial year 2026-27.

Both the sub-schemes are designed to set up 12 common facilities and 12 testing laboratories, under which the common facilities will be supported with a financial assistance of Rs. 240 crore (Rs. 48 crore in the first year, Rs. 128 crore in the second and Rs 64 crore in the third year) for the common facilities and Rs. 60 crore (Rs. 18 crore for the first, Rs. 30 crore for the second and Rs. 12 crore for the third year) for the testing facilities.

Assistance for Common Facilities is planned to strengthen the medical devices clusters’ capacity for their sustained growth by creating common infrastructure facilities.

Medical devices manufacturing units in a cluster who have come together to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to execute the project of developing common facilities and the clusters promoted by the State governments, are expected to benefit from the sub-scheme.

There shall be a minimum of five medical device manufacturing units as members of SPV. Clusters promoted by state governments may not need to form an SPV.

The SPV should have representatives from cluster members, financial institutions, state and central government and R&D organisations and the individual manufacturing unit cannot hold more than 40 per cent in the SPV. The Medical Devices enterprises shall hold at least 51 per cent equity of the SPV.

For Common Infrastructure Facilities for medical device clusters, the limit of support will be 70 per cent of the approved project cost or Rs. 20 crore, whichever is less, as per the approval of the Scheme Steering Committee (SSC).

The sub scheme is expected to have benefits including improvement in quality of medical devices, regulatory compliance specified for medical devices, increased availability of trained personnel for the clusters, increased competitiveness of units in the cluster and reduction in the manufacturing cost of the devices.

The sub scheme on assistance for Testing Facilities is aimed at strengthening availability of more Medical Device Testing Laboratories in order to boost manufacturing of quality medical devices, and national or state level government of private institutions interested to establish or strengthen testing facilities for medical devices to test Class A, B, C and D medical devices including in vitro diagnostic medical devices under MDR, 2017 can apply for the assistance.

The guideline proposes a Technical Committee constituted by the DoP to assist the SSC, which will have one representative each from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), industry and academia, and ICMR, and two representative experts having knowledge and experience in the process development, R&D, product design, testing of medical devices or medical devices manufacturing from relevant institutes such as NIPER, IISc, IITs, Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, and CSIR, among others.

The DoP will provide overall policy, coordination and management support for the implementation of the Scheme, while the proposals under the scheme will be considered for approval by the SSC, which will be headed by the Secretary of DoP as the Chairperson, and will have members including the Drugs Controller General of India, Financial Advisor of DoP, Joint Secretary (Schemes and Medical Devices), DoP, representatives of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), and the director or the deputy secretary (Schemes) of the DoP.

Source: https://thehealthmaster.com/2023/05/11/govt-releases-guidelines-for-scheme-for-assistance-to-medical-devices-clusters/

Implementation of Section 42 (a) of Pharmacy Act & Rule 65 of D&C Act

Implementation of Section 42(a) of Pharmacy Act 1947 and Rules 65 of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1945

Drugs Controller General of India has issued a letter to all States / UTs Drug Controllers and Pharmacy Council of India on strict Implementation of Section 42(a) of Pharmacy Act 1947 and Rules 65 of D&C Act 1945 on the following:

  • To ensure that Pharmacists are physically present in the retail pharmacies / medical stores and that medicines are sold / dispensed under their direct supervision
  • To ensure that no prescription medicine is sold / dispensed from the retail medicine shop without a proper and valid prescription

THE MEDICAL DEVICES RULES, 2017

THE MEDICAL DEVICES RULES, 2017

The draft of the Medical Devices Rules, 2016 was published, as required under sub-section (1) of Section 12 and sub-section (1) of Section 33 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940), in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, section 3, sub-section (i), vide notification number G.S.R. 983(E), dated the 17th October, 2016, by the Central Government.

All objections and suggestions received in response to the said draft notification have been duly considered by the Central Government; Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 12 and Section 33 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940), the Central Government, after consultation with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board, hereby makes the Medical Devices Rules, 2017

These rules shall, unless specified otherwise, come into force with effect from 1st day of January, 2018

These rules shall be applicable in respect of,—
(i) substances used for in vitro diagnosis and surgical dressings, surgical bandages, surgical staples, surgical sutures, ligatures, blood Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India Page 2 of 248 and blood component collection bag with or without anticoagulant covered under sub-clause (i);
(ii) substances including mechanical contraceptives (condoms, intrauterine devices, tubal rings), disinfectants and insecticides notified under sub-clause (ii); and
(iii) devices notified from time to time under sub-clause (iv), of clause (b) of section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940).

Source:https://www.drugscontrol.org/pdf/Medical%20Devices%20Rules,%202017.pdf

Enrolment of Medical Colleges as ADR monitoring centers under PvPI

NMC Mandate Enrolment of Medical Colleges as ADR monitoring centers under PvPI

Aiming to uplift regulatory standards for the overall collection, analysis and monitoring of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) from the Public, National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed all medical colleges, standalone PG Institutions to enrol themselves as Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Centers with the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) under the Pharmacovigilance Program of India (PvPI) at the earliest.

Indian Pharmacopoeia is functioning as the National Co-ordination Centre, Pharmacovigilance Programme of India to collect, analyse and monitor the adverse drug reactions from the Indian population to promote Patient Safety and Safeguard the health of patients by ensuring that the benefits of the use of medicines outweigh the risk associated with its use

The collected ADRs data is a significant source of evidence of recommendations of regulatory interventions regarding the safety of medicines to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)       

In order to achieve the above objective, IPC has so far enrolled 652 Adverse Drug Monitoring Centres (AMCs).

In the 22 nd Meeting of the Governing Body of India Pharmacopoeia Commission held on 14.10.2022 under the chairmanship of the Secretary (HFW) it has been decided that all Medical colleges/ hospitals under the National Medical Commission should also be enrolled as AMCs with IPC.

Accordingly, all Medical colleges/hospitals under the National Medical Commission are directed to get themselves enrolled with Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) as AMCs at the earliest.

Source:https://medicaldialogues.in/

CDSCO Notification on Resellers

Registration by Medical Device Distributors, Stockists, Exhibitors or Resellers made a must under Medical Device Regulations

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has asked Distributors, traders and resellers of medical devices to register in an attempt to expand the ambit of regulating the medical devices industry in the country.

In a notification dated September 30 2022, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said anyone wanting to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribute a medical device, including in-vitro diagnostic medical device, will need to obtain a Certificate of Registration. These rules may be called the Medical Devices (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2022.

These rules shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

Key points from the Notification released :

In the said rules, after rule 87, the following rules shall be inserted, namely:—

“87A. Registration certificate to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribute a medical device including in vitro diagnostic medical device.—

(1) The State Licencing Authority shall appoint Licensing Authorities for the purpose of issuing registration certificate under this Part for such areas as may be specified.

(2) Any person who intends to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribute a  medical device including in vitro diagnostic medical device, shall make an application in Form MD-41 to the State Licensing Authority for grant of registration certificate to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribution.

(3) The application made under sub-rule (2) shall be accompanied with

  • a fees specified in Second Schedule;
  • self certificate of compliance with respect to Good Distribution Compliance;
  • details of the applicant or firm including its constitution, along with identification proof, such as, Aadhar card or PAN card;
  • documentary evidence in respect of ownership or occupancy on rental of the premises;
  • details of competent technical staff, under whose direction and supervision the sales activity of medical device shall be undertaken, who shall possess the following educational qualification and experience, namely:—
    • hold a degree from a recognized University/Institution; or
    • is a registered pharmacist; or
    • has passed intermediate examination or its equivalent examination from a recognised Board with one-year experience in dealing with sale of medical devices;
  • brief description on other activities carried out by applicant, namely, storage of drugs, medical items, food products, stationeries, etc., or any other activities carried out by the applicant in the said premises; and
  • an undertaking to the effect that the storage requirements to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribute a medical device will be complied with.

(4) The State Licensing Authority shall, after scrutiny of documents and on being satisfied that the requirements of these rules have been complied with, grant a registration certificate in Form MD42, or if not satisfied, reject the application for reasons to be recorded in writing, within ten days from the date the application is made under sub-rule (2).

(5) If the application for grant of registration certificate to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribute a medical device is rejected under sub-rule (4), the aggrieved person may prefer an appeal before the State Government within forty-five days from the date of receipt of such rejection, which may, after such enquiry and after giving an opportunity of being heard to the appellant, dispose it within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of such appeal.

87B. Conditions of registration certificate to sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale or distribute a medical device including in vitro diagnostic medical device.—

(1)The registration certificate granted under rule 87A shall be displayed at a prominent place in the premises visible to the public.

(2) The registration certificate holder shall provide adequate space and proper storage condition for storage of the medical devices.

(3) The registration certificate holder shall maintain requisite temperature and lighting as per requirements of such medical devices.

(4) The medical devices shall be purchased only from importer or licensed manufacturer or registered or licensed entity.

(5) Separate records, in the form of invoice or register or electronic details including software of purchases and sales of medical devices showing the names and quantities of such medical devices, names and addresses of the manufacturers or importers, batch number or lot number and expiry date (if applicable) shall be maintained. 

(6) The records referred to in sub-rule (5) shall be open to inspection by a Medical Device Officer appointed under the sub-rule (2) of rule 18, who may, if necessary, make enquiries about purchases and sale of the medical devices and may also take samples for testing.

(7) All registers and records mentioned under these rules, shall be preserved for a period of not less than two years from the last entry, therein.

(8) The registration certificate holder shall maintain an inspection book in Form MD-43 to enable the Medical Devices Officer to record his observations and defects noticed.

87C. Validity of registration certificate.— (1)A registration certificate issued in Form MD-42, shall remain valid in perpetuity, subject to payment of registration certificate retention fee as specified in the Second Schedule, before completion of the period of five years from the date of its issue, unless, it is suspended or cancelled by State Licensing Authority:

Provided that, if the registration certificate holder fails to pay the required registration certificate retention fee on or before due date, the registration certificate holder shall, in addition to the registration certificate retention fee, be liable to pay a late fee calculated at the rate of two per cent. of the registration certificate retention fee for every month or part thereof within six months:

Provided further that in the event of non-payment of such fee within the period referred to in the first proviso, the registration certificate shall be deemed to have been cancelled.

87D. Suspension and cancellation of Registration Certificate.— (1) Where the registration certificate holder contravenes any provision of the Act or these rules, the State Licensing Authority, shall, after giving the registration certificate holder an opportunity to show cause as to why such an order should not be passed, by an order and for reasons to be recorded in writing, suspend it for such period as it considers necessary either wholly or in respect of any of the medical device or, as the case may be, cancel the registration certificate.

(2) A registration certificate holder whose registration certificate has been suspended or cancelled by the State Licensing Authority under sub-rule (1), may within forty-five days of the receipt of a copy of the order by such authority, prefer an appeal to the State Government and the State Government, shall after giving the registration holder an opportunity of being heard, confirm, reverse or modify such order, with reasons to be recorded in writing.”.

Notification also contains other information like application format (MD 41), MD 42, fee details etc .

Download the notification here

CDSCO Notification

Regulation of all Class A & B Medical Devices under Licensing regime, w.e.f 01.10.2022 – Regulator’s Notification

MoHFW has released a recent notification on Sep 30th 2022 about the Registration / Licensing norms for Medical Device Manufacturers, Importers for Class A and B Devices .

Content of the notification is shared below for information purposes :

  • The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) has published notification vide S.O. 648 (E) dated 11.02.2020 specifying all medical devices under sub-clause (iv) of clause (b) of section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, which is effective from 01.04 2020.
  • In order to regulate all the medical devices, MoHFW has published G.S.R. 102 (E) dated 11.02.2020 for regulation of such devices in phase wise manner. As per the said notification the Class A & B medical devices will be under licensing regime from 01.10.2022.
  • In the meantime, representations from various Associations and Stakeholders have been received by this office, requesting that the business continuity should not be disrupted due to the implementation of licensing regime w.e.f. 01.10.2022 for Class A & B medical devices.
  • In view of the above, it has been decided that, in case, if an existing importer/manufacturer who is already importing /manufacturing any of Class A or Class B Medical Devices, has submitted application to Central Licensing Authority or State Licensing Authority on or before 30.09.2022, as the case may be, for grant of import /manufacturing licence in respect of the said device(s) under the provisions of MDR, 2017, the said application shall be deemed valid and the importer/manufacturer can continue to import /manufacture the said device(s) up to 6 months from the date of issue of this order or till the time, the Central Licensing Authority or State Licensing Authority, as the case may be, takes a decision on the said application, whichever is earlier.

Notification can be downloaded from here

Source – https://cdsco.gov.in/opencms/opencms/system/modules/CDSCO.WEB/elements/download_file_division.jsp?num_id=OTA1Nw==

What the notification means ?

Manufacturers and importers of non notified devices (which are not regulated already) of Class A and B Categories were given time for 18 months timeframe – from April 2020 to Sep 30, 2021, to Voluntarily register their businesses and products sold by them in the market. This registration helps businesses to establish business identity with Regulator. Subsequent to this, thereafter, from October, 2021, Class A & B Medical Devices were brought under compulsory registration scheme up to 30th September- 2022. Regulator gave call of action to manufacturers and importers, to complete the mandatory registration process before 30th Sep 2022 as Licensing regime starts from Oct 1st 2022.

In the interim period, a draft notification was released by MoHFW inviting public comments about exempting Class A – non sterile and non measurement devices from Licensing . It was only a draft and no further announcement was made about the same. Members of the sector have assumed that this category of products was exempted . This interim notification has caused some confusion at the market place.

However, as per the recent notification, the status quo is clear where MoHFW has clarified that existing manufacturers, importers who were already manufacturing, importing Class A , B Devices in the market and who have already applied to CLA/SLA for License, after applying for voluntary or mandatory registration, can continue to operate in the market as their application for license will be deemed valid. They can continue to manufacture or import Class A, B devices for the next 6 months time from the date of this order or till the time the CLA/SLA takes a decision on the application whichever is earlier.

There are players who have not filed application under Voluntary & Mandatory registration process due to lack of awareness or various other business challenges and they are seeking clarification and guidance on how to apply now. They would like to know if they have to apply for Registration or Licensing now and if they are permitted to apply for Registration hereafter.

Some clarity and guidance from the Ministry on these concerns would certainly help the players/industry.

Notified Bodies registered with CDSCO under MDR 2017

List of Notified Bodies registered with CDSCO under MDR 2017

CDSCO has released the list of Notified Bodies registered with CDSCO under Medical Devices Rules 2017 to carry out audit of manufacturing site under the provisions of said rules.

Please click the link below to know the list of registered Notified Bodies

Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs) on Medical Device Rules, 2017

CDSCO has released a document on Frequently Asked Questions on Medical Device Rule, 2017

Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) . Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has released a Document on FAQs on Medical Device Rule 2017, to create public awareness about Medical Devices Regulation.

Source : Doc No.: CDSCO/FAQ/MD/01/2018
https://cdsco.gov.in/opencms/resources/UploadCDSCOWeb/2018/UploadImmunization/FAQmd2018.pdf