Drug manufacturing companies, which had to wait for up to nine months for various licences, can now look forward to much faster clearances. The drug quality regulator has expedited the process of clearing applications for export licence, import licence and test licences and is trying to hand them out in one-third the usual time required. The idea is to help the industry conduct clinical trials and move medicines, both domestically and outside the country, faster and with fewer hindrances. 

“We are trying to reduce the time frame for clearances. Applications for import licences are now being processed by us in less than 12 weeks, though the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DCA) gives us a leverage of nine months to clear them,” the drug controller general of India (DCGI) Dr Surinder Singh said. In case of export licences, the regulator would now clear applications within two weeks and test licences would be approved in six weeks.