Regulator lens on blurry or tucked away medicine label details
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Struggled with illegible and poorly-placed labels for medicines? There may be help on way, as the apex drugs regulator is set to tighten scrutiny of how critical information, such as medicine names and expiry dates, is printed on the packaging, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.The move by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) aims to curb medication errors and improve patient safety in India's $50 billion pharmaceuticals market.According to the plan in the works, the CDSCO and state regulators will step up plant inspections and issue targeted instructions to drug inspectors with a focus on visibility, durability and placement of key information.Following complaints, the apex regulator had appointed a committee that identified a significant gap in the variability of medicine labelling implementation at the manufacturing level.Consumers' complaints ranged from the packaging information being illegible due to a host of reasons to the demand for the medicine name being printed across the package and for a universally-recognized symbol on generic medicines to distinguish them from branded ones.The CDSCO set up a sub-committee in July 2025, chaired by the drugs controller of Telangana, with drugs controllers of Kerala, Odisha and representatives of HLL Lifecare Ltd, the deputy drugs controller of Hyderabad zone and Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) officials as members.In its report, this panel said the CDSCO and state licensing authorities "may issue suitable advisories or internal instructions to GMP inspectors to ensure focused scrutiny of labelling practices, including visibility, durability and placement of