The Drug Control Officers India (DCO India) has got good response to its membership drive that started from Ladakh to Kanyakumari in September 2022, and now the number has crossed the one thousand mark.
Sources from the association’s Delhi office informed that the exercise would continue for next six months or until the enrollment reaches 15,000. Current number of life-members of the association is 1,112. There is only one membership category which is life-membership.
While talking to Pharmabiz, the national president of the association G. Koteeswara Rao who is presently in Texas in US said all over India there are over 17,000 drug regulatory officers in central and state services, out of this 15,000 are targeted by DCO India to be enrolled as its life-members. He said the life membership charge is only Rs.1,100. To every life-member DCO India has given a 2023 diary as a gift. He said the diary is a unique gift as it contains all the details about the regulatory officers in the country. The personal and official phone numbers of all drug controllers, drug control officers and drug inspectors from the CDSCO have been included in it. The copies have been couriered to all members from Ley in Ladakh to Kanyakumari, and from Arunahal Pradesh to Gujarat. He said the CDSCO officers are not showing much interest.
Rao said DCO India’s state committee for the union territory of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir has agreed to organize the next executive committee meeting of the association in the second week of May in Ladakh. The EC meeting will decide the agenda for the next national conference which is scheduled to be conducted in July. The venue will be decided in the Ladakh EC meeting. Most probably Dehradun will be the location.
On the lines of the comprehensive diary that was brought out recently, DCO India plans to bring out a book of Drugs and Cosmetics Act with latest amendments in the rules. The book will also contain the medical devices act. Work is going on to publish it in the national conference in July. In Texas, Koteeswara Rao will interact with the regulatory officers, drug manufacturers and distributors. He will also visit some pharmacies to understand the operations of the US pharmacies and the pharmacy profession there.
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