Coronavirus pandemic | India's drug regulatory system creaky and cumbersome: PM Modi at meeting on developing COVID-19 vaccine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a meeting held on May 5 to review the status of  India's efforts in developing a coronavirus vaccine, said India's regulatory system for new drugs and vaccines was still "creaky and cumbersome" at the best of times.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, PM Modi told top officials present during the meeting that this has to change.

"The prime minister underscored that we not only had to have the highest quality, ethical standards but also the highest speed," a senior government official told the newspaper.

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"This means we need to overhaul the regulatory system, that too at warp speed," another official said.

According to the report, while European countries and the United States have provisions through which they can conduct trials on humans on emergency clearance basis, in India it takes time for companies to run trials on even mice.

"We really need to revamp the approval processes at the drug controller’s office," a third official told the newspaper, citing the example of Gilead Sciences' experimental antiviral drug, Remdesivir, which, according to the official, will take considerable time to reach India due to the red tape in Indian bureaucracy.

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In an official statement after the meeting, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that PM Modi took note of the "extraordinary coming together" of academia, industry and government, combined with speedy but efficient regulatory process.

"This kind of pride, originality and sense of purpose should dominate our approach going ahead.

"It is only then that we can be amongst the best in the world and not followers, in science," the Prime Minister said during the meeting, according to the statement.