India takes aim at unregulated, fake cosmetic imports

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) will clamp down on importers of cosmetic products to make sure they meet notification requirements, in an attempt to protect the public from unregulated and counterfeit products.

The initiative, reported in the Economic Times,  which cites people familiar with the matter, will ask for details such as the number of consignments and bill of entries of each consignment, the quantity and total cost of imported cosmetics in each consignment, along with other information like the location where they are stored for further distribution and sale.

In a recently published circular, DCGI Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi said that importers of cosmetic products need to provide details of shipments to the Central Licensing Authority, but added: “it has been observed that the details of cosmetics imported annually by such importers are not being provided to this office.”

Also this month, the DCGI published new guidance (PDF) on the collection by central and state drug licensing authorities and inspectors of data on substandard and spurious drugs, medicinal devices and cosmetics.

The new guidance covers the approach taken to sampling and analysis of samples by inspectors and  also recommends that they compile listings of “not of standard quality” NSQ products, as well as corrective and enforcement measures taken – that should be communicated to the controlling authority.

The authority in turn should prepare a monthly list identifying wholesale or retail outlets – including the name of the registered pharmacist and owner – where spurious products have been found.

The aim is to adopt a “uniform drug sampling methodology for drugs inspectors,” according to the DCGI.