Regulatory compliance and industry standards in pharma industry

India Lab Expo 2024 is an international trade fair for laboratory technology, analysis, biotechnology and diagnostics. The three-day show commenced on 15 April, 2024 with more than 200 exhibitors and 3000 products on display. More than 800 buyers and visitors were expected to attend.

Day two had a few sessions lined up. The first session was a panel discussion that revolved around ‘navigating regulatory compliance and industry standards in food analysis.’ The session was moderated by Kavita Pandey, head of the biotechnology department at Khalsa College. The panellists were Divya Pawana, food analyst at the International Training Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, FSSAI; Santosh Jathar, municipal analyst at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Municipal Laboratory; Sandhya Srivastava, director of the Bhavans Research Centre, Mumbai; Sheetal Patil, operations manager at Eureka Analytical Services and Megha Gampa, product manager at Sartorius.

Santosh Jathar said “We have analysed 72,000 water samples and 20,000 ice samples out of which 90% are unfit for consumption. Surprisingly, ice samples collected from beer bars are fit for consumption. We have coded the ice for consumption to be water-like colour, not for consumption to  be blue coloured. In the last 4 years, I've never noticed blue coloured ice.”

Sandhya Srivastava said “Research is nothing but knowledge converted to action. And that exactly should be the agenda.” “Especially in analytical labs, look at protocol, once you get the data, with confidentiality of course, use this data to gain knowledge, and then take action on it,” she added.

Sheetal Patil, operation manager, Eureka Analytical Services, said " If given a good time to implement the recent developments, the challenges can be mitigated by updating the methodology and research guidelines.”

Megha Gampa said “ Something that's trending is touchfree membrane water analysis that curtails secondary contamination. The second trend is knowing airborne contamination. You can choose the right technology to identify 99% accurate results for airborne contamination.”

Divya Pawani said “For metal analysis, we have a new concept called methyl organic test where we can run all the tests at once.” Gampa raised a concern, by saying “Training your team is important and updating the skills and training programs. Srivastava added, "Compliance is an aspect students should learn. In college, we teach principals but they need to understand QC, QA, and compliance. They should also be exposed to data analysis." 
 
Jathar agreed, and added, " We have planned to hire 20 student MSc or MTech per month, that will facilitate a better hands on experience, real sample and training for them.”