Last Updated on July 14, 2026 by The Health Master
Cancelled and Suspended Licenses
The Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC) and the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have directed the State Licensing Authorities to publish the details of cancelled and suspended licenses of pharmaceutical manufacturers on their official websites.
This will aid in the creation of a transparent and interconnected network between state and central regulatory authorities to ensure that all drugs manufactured within the country meet the required quality control standards.
Why the DCC Demanded This Level of Transparency
At the 69th meeting of the DCC that was chaired by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), vulnerabilities in the current licensing system for pharmaceutical manufacturers were identified.
The licenses of manufacturers that were cancelled or suspended at the state level were historically only visible to the state authorities regulating that manufacturer.
These licenses were often exploited by the non-compliant manufacturers to outbid other manufacturers who were competing for drug supply orders.
The state licensing authorities often published orders and licenses of manufacturers for whom the state had approved the manufacturing of drugs.
However, these licenses were only accessible in print form.
These print licenses were often submitted by the manufacturers as proof of their license to win bids for supply orders for the institutions.
Furthermore, there was a significant data gap between the various states, Union Territories, and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
The state licensing authorities had no way of sharing the data of the licenses of the manufacturers with the CDSCO in real-time.
The CDSCO was, therefore, encountering roadblocks when attempting to implement quality control measures for non-compliant manufacturers.
A New Framework to Bridge the Regulatory Gap
The DCC has mandated that the State Licensing Authorities share information with the CDSCO each month, before the 10th of every month.
| Action Item | Reporting Channel | Frequency / Deadline |
| Cancelled and suspended licenses | Public Portal Disclosure & CDSCO Submission | Monthly (Before the 10th) |
| Stop-Production Orders & Recall Alerts | SLA Official Website Posting | Real-time / Immediate Public Release |
| Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) Data | Standardized CDSCO-Prescribed Format | Fixed Monthly Timeline |
The DCC also mandated the submission of the Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) drugs data by all states.
According to reports presented at the 69th DCC meeting, there has been an improvement in the number of states that share their NSQ drugs data with the CDSCO.
However, there is still a mandate for all state authorities to comply with this regulation.
Cracking Down on Unapproved Formulations of Drugs
Furthermore, the DCC has identified the problem of unapproved formulations of drugs being manufactured and distributed throughout the country.
For a permanent solution to be implemented for this problem, the DCC has suggested the formation of a sub-committee on the DTAB to address this issue.
The main goals of this sub-committee will be to formulate a database of all the drugs that are approved for manufacture in India and eliminate any unapproved formulations of drugs from the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
The sub-committee will also create a database of all the drugs that were licensed for manufacture in the individual states prior to September 21, 1988.
