The Drug Consultative Committee directed state drug regulators to upload all licence suspension, cancellation, and drug recall orders to their official websites.
State authorities must submit monthly reports of these regulatory actions to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation before the tenth of every month.
The directive addresses a loophole where penalised manufacturers continued operations by submitting photocopies of cancelled product licences for procurement.
The Drug Consultative Committee has recommended that state drug authorities publish all regulatory actions on their official websites. The expert committee also instructed states to submit monthly reports of these actions to the central regulator. This directive aims to eliminate the regulatory disconnect between state and central authorities.
The new guidelines were detailed in the minutes of the committee’s meeting held on June 24, 2026, an Indian Express report said. Officials identified gaps in the current system that allow penalised companies to continue their operations.
"…it has been observed that some manufacturers have been found submitting a photocopy of the original product licence for various procurement orders despite the cancellation of their original product license," the minutes of the meeting stated.
Three Key Directives
The committee issued three specific mandates to improve transparency and coordination. First, state drug authorities must upload all orders related to licence suspensions, cancellations, production halts and drug recalls to their official portals.
Second, state regulators are required to forward these enforcement details to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) prior to the 10th of each month.
Third, states must supply the central agency with a monthly list of Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) medicines. State authorities are already mandated to send NSQ data for the central regulator's national monthly list. However, this national database remains largely incomplete because several state agencies routinely fail to submit their records.
Impact and Enforcement
The online publication of regulatory orders is designed to increase public scrutiny and restrict the inter-state movement of substandard medicines.
"The purpose of putting the orders online is to make people aware about the action taken against a company. It is naming and shaming the company in question," an expert cited by the report said.
He continued that the online disclosure will not alter the fundamental regulatory processes. Enforcement remains the sole responsibility of state authorities, as the central regulator cannot independently penalise regional manufacturers.
However, making recall orders publicly accessible ensures that distributors and sellers in other states immediately know when a specific drug is recalled.
Targeting Counterfeit Packaging
The committee also addressed the illicit diversion of printed pharmaceutical packaging materials. Fraudulent entities frequently misuse these materials to package and distribute counterfeit and spurious medicines in the market.
To counter this, the panel recommended establishing a dedicated sub-committee to evaluate the mandatory registration of all suppliers dealing in printed drug packaging.
"The sub-committee may give its report on: The necessity and feasibility of such registration; To suggest an appropriate regulatory framework for insertion under the Drugs Rules…; Any other measures considered necessary to prevent diversion and misuse of pharmaceutical packaging materials…" the minutes further stated.
