In a push for greater ease of doing business in the country, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has proposed to make it mandatory for pharmaceutical companies and chemists to periodically pay a licence retention fee instead of the current ambiguous practice of renewal of licences. According to the proposal, if a company or chemist does not pay this fee within the due date, the licence would be deemed as cancelled.
The central drug controller believes that once this provision is incorporated in the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, it would be a part of “rationalising the grant of licences for manufacture or sale of drugs”, as the licences of companies and chemists “who are not carrying on the business for a long time will stand cancelled”.