
State gets CDSCO-notified medical device audit body
In a significant move, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has notified
KIHT Certification Services
(KCS) as the state's first regulatory body authorised to inspect manufacturing facilities for
Class A and Class B medical devices
.
Among 14 such notified bodies nationwide, KCS is the only one currently operational in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, marking a major milestone in the region's quality management capabilities.
Founded in July 2017, the
Kalam Institute of Health Technology
(KIHT)-housed inside the AMTZ campus-is a Government of India project supported by the Department of Biotechnology. It promotes and supports innovations in medical technologies through research and development, industry promotion, policymaking, and knowledge management.
Established in April 2022, KCS is accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies and offers comprehensive services including
ISO 13485 certification
, quality systems audits, risk management training, and CE-mark consultancy-making it a full-service hub for manufacturers seeking to meet global regulatory standards.
This approval brings immediate benefits to domestic manufacturers, particularly MSMEs, by eliminating the need for audits outside the state-resulting in significant time and cost savings.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Time of India
19 hours ago
- Time of India
No Radiologist, No Problem: Qure.ai's AI Takes the X-Ray Lead
By Staff When Prashant Warier co-founded nearly a decade ago, artificial intelligence in healthcare was largely experimental. Today, the company's AI algorithms are helping interpret millions of medical images each year — and in some countries, replacing the need for human readers in critical a conversation with ET Studios' Tech Heal moderated by Shilpa Rathnam, Warier, CEO of traced the company's origins to a specific gap in healthcare: chest X-rays — the most common and oldest form of medical imaging — were often not being read by radiologists. In India and other parts of the world, general practitioners or technicians often handled interpretation. In some cases, patients received no report at all. set out to automate that process, training AI models on a large volume of de-identified clinical images sourced through hospital partnerships. The company now works with over 100 healthcare institutions globally and has built a dataset exceeding 1.5 billion images. The company's flagship product, qXR, is a tool designed to detect abnormalities in chest X-rays — including signs of tuberculosis — in under 30 seconds. The tool is currently deployed in screening programs across several countries, including the Philippines, where mobile vans equipped with X-ray machines use qXR to produce real-time readings. Before deployment, such scans could take weeks to be interpreted. In 2021, the World Health Organization formally endorsed solution as an autonomous tool for TB detection, without the need for human review. Warier describes this as a key inflection point for the company. It is also now the most scaled use-case of autonomous AI in healthcare , with the system analyzing between 5 to 10 million X-rays annually. path to adoption has not been without challenges. AI used in clinical pathways is considered a medical device, which means every deployment must go through rigorous regulatory approval. The company spent three years obtaining its first FDA clearance in the U.S. and now holds 18 regulatory approvals, including CE certification in Europe. Each submission typically requires data from the local population and independent comparison against certified radiologists. Warier emphasizes that the role of AI is not to replace physicians but to support them. While automation can handle high-volume, routine imaging, tasks like diagnosis confirmation, treatment planning, and patient communication remain with clinicians. 'AI will be there throughout the patient journey,' he says, 'but it will be an assist.' Looking ahead, Warier expects AI to take over more foundational tasks in radiology — flagging abnormalities, creating template reports, and improving scan-to-diagnosis times. As India's digital health infrastructure evolves — particularly with the introduction of personal health IDs and medical data interoperability — Warier believes the accuracy and value of AI in healthcare will continue to rise. is currently active in 90 countries, with a growing presence in low- and middle-income regions where radiology expertise is scarce. The company's approach, Warier says, remains grounded in utility: 'We started by solving a problem nobody else was looking at.' Disclaimer - The above content is non-editorial, and ET Healthworld hereby disclaims any and all warranties, expressed or implied, relating to it, and does not guarantee, vouch for or necessarily endorse any of the content.


The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
RSS arm seeks clarity on draft guidelines on biosimilars
Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), urged the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the apex drug regulatory authority, to bring more clarity in its draft guidelines to ensure production of high-quality and cost-effective biosimilars in the country. In a letter to the Director General of CDSCO, SJM sought safeguards for the Indian industry from 'international pressures for regulations' that favour multi-national pharma companies. The CDSCO had recently issued the 2025 draft guidelines on similar biologics, also called biosimilars. 'Though the draft guidelines represent a pivotal advancement in making affordable, life-saving biosimilars accessible to millions of Indians suffering from chronic and life-threatening conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders it requires more clarity and direction,' the SJM letter reads. The SJM appreciated the draft guidelines for embracing the '3Rs principle' (replacement, reduction, refinement) as it reflects India's commitment to ethical scientific practices and alignment with global standards for animal welfare. Modern technologies, including in-vitro assays, organ-on-chip models, and computational simulations, provide robust, accurate, and humane alternatives to confirm the safety and biosimilarity of these drugs, it said. 'These methods are often faster and more precise than animal studies, reducing both ethical concerns and development costs,' it added. The organisation, however, noted that the guidelines stipulating that it will be the discretion of the CDSCO to decide whether a requirement of 'additional non-clinical in vivo animal studies' should be waived or not, poses a 'risk' of increasing biosimilar development cost. This provision goes against the practices of the leading regulatory authorities in other countries, it added. 'Prominent regulatory authorities like the UK MHRA, European Medicine Agency (EMA) Health Canada, and USFDA have either eliminated or phased out mandatory animal testing for biosimilars,' SJM said, adding its recommendation that waiving animal studies entirely when comprehensive laboratory tests demonstrate high similarity between a biosimilar and its reference product. Recently, civil societies, in a letter to CDSCO on the draft guidelines on biosimilars, has urged that there is an urgent need to eliminate unnecessary animal studies, and establish clear conditions for requiring comparative clinical trials for affordable biosimilars without compromising safety and efficacy. According to the SJM, the draft guidelines' provision to waive certain clinical trials when biosimilarity is established through analytical and functional studies is a forward-thinking measure, saying this approach can significantly reduce development costs and expedite market entry, which is critical for patients awaiting affordable treatments. However, the lack of explicit criteria in the guidelines for when waivers are permitted introduces ambiguity, potentially leading to inconsistent application and delays as well as 'room for corrupt practices', it said, stressing the need to establish 'clear conditions' for conduct of clinical trials.


The Print
2 days ago
- The Print
India's draft guidelines on biosimilar drugs can make treatments more accessible, affordable
In India, healthcare affordability is a critical issue, and biosimilars can play a pivotal role in making advanced therapies accessible to a broader population. India's dynamic pharmaceutical ecosystem positions the country to become a global leader in biosimilar production. The government has initiated multiple policy reforms and introduced capacity building initiatives in the form of National Biopharma Mission (NBM) and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic biosimilar production. But significant obstacles remain concerning regulatory policies and market accessibility. Hence, promoting safe, efficacious, and affordable biosimilars requires a comprehensive strategy — one that not only encourages innovation through research and development, but also streamlines the regulatory processes and ensures rigorous quality standards. Biosimilars present a vital opportunity to increase patients' access to biological therapies and reduce the burden on healthcare systems. Although biosimilar drugs are hailed as a pathway for providing better access to expensive and unaffordable drugs, their production is fraught with hurdles, including high cost and regulatory barriers. Unlike conventional generic medicines, bringing a biosimilar drug to the market requires substantial scientific expertise, advanced technological capabilities, and a robust regulatory apparatus. These challenges have hindered the pace of biosimilar development and limited their adoption and uptake globally. Biologic drugs have become the cornerstone of medical treatment, offering therapies for a number of diseases. Unlike traditional medicines that offer a one-size-fits-all approach, many biologics have a very targeted approach to disease management and treatment. These transformative therapies have altered the treatment landscape for multiple diseases, including cancer and autoimmune disorders. Biosimilars are biological products that are highly similar to approved reference or innovator drugs, with no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety, purity, and potency. Limitations India has emerged as the global frontrunner in the commercialisation and approval of biosimilars. The country approved its first biosimilar in 2000, well ahead of similar regulatory action in Western markets — the European Union approved the first biosimilar in 2006, while the US approved nearly 10 years later in 2015. The formulation of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) biosimilar evaluation process in 2012 and revision of the guidelines in 2016 provided the much needed regulatory rigour and accelerated the pace of approvals. With 135 approved products as of January 2025, spanning across various therapeutic areas, India has surpassed both the US and Europe. Though India has built a robust domestic biosimilar market, its international presence and the ability to lower prices as compared to small molecule generics remains limited. One of the major reasons has been the inability to align with the scientific and technological advancement happening globally. The changes in the stances of global regulatory bodies signal a potential evolution in the biosimilar landscape and present an opportunity for Indian regulators to align their regulations with those of the UK, EU, and Canada. These global regulatory changes, coupled with the impending biosimilar void, provide a golden opportunity for Indian biosimilar manufacturers to remove the high investment barrier and expand their footprint globally. Reflecting a shift in the biosimilar landscape and global regulatory alignments, the CDSCO released its draft revised Guidelines on Similar Biologics in May 2025. These updated guidelines seek to align India's regulatory approach with established frameworks, specifically the WHO Technical Report Series No. 1043, European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) frameworks. Some of the key changes in the draft guidelines include an increased focus on strengthening the analytical and structural characterisation and in-vitro comparability of biosimilars. Additionally, the guidelines also emphasise on following the principle of 3Rs (Replace, Reduce, Refine) for animal studies, allowing conditional waivers for clinical efficacy studies, and advancing interchangeability practices. Though the focus on 3Rs reflect India's commitment to ethical science and global standards that prioritise animal welfare, it still allows for animal studies in some cases and also leaves the discretion to the licensing authorities. Many of the international developed regulatory bodies like the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, EMA, Health Canada, and USFDA have increasingly shifted away from animal testing and moved to non-animal models. In a ground breaking development, the USFDA has even decided to phase out animal testing for development of products like monoclonal antibodies. But the CDSCO's draft guidelines allowing conditional waivers in place of a complete waiver for animal testing can lead to increased ambiguity, which will increase cost for biosimilar manufacturers and delay access to affordable biosimilars. Also read: India's top students wanted to be doctors. Not anymore A historic opportunity In terms of waiver for clinical trials, there is an increasing shift in the global paradigm in countries like the UK, EU, and Canada where clinical efficacy studies are regarded as an exception rather than a rule for regulatory approval of biosimilars. These changes do not reflect a radical break, but show decades of scientific and regulatory experience with product approvals and data evidence. These jurisdictions have embraced more nuanced approaches and established clear science-driven criteria for when clinical trials will be truly necessary. Health Canada draft guidelines have moved further by requiring the clinical trial sponsor (biosimilar manufacturer) to provide rationale for conducting clinical trials. In contrast, Indian guidelines grant considerable discretion to the licensing authority, without delineating scenarios where such trials will be required. This lack of clarity not only risks regulatory arbitrariness, but will also inflate development costs. India stands at a critical junction of biosimilar innovation. Amidst rapid advancements in its scientific prowess, policy shifts, and an evolving regulatory landscape, it is well-positioned to spearhead advancements in producing affordable biosimilars. The 2025 Draft Guidelines on Similar Biologics offer a historic opportunity to advance India's healthcare system. By removing persisting ambiguities in animal studies, clarifying conditions for clinical trials, and prioritising affordability, it will not only provide the much needed impetus to India's biosimilar industry but can also make biosimilars more accessible and reinforce India's leadership in affordable medicine. Chetali Rao is a Senior Scientific Researcher and Legal Advisor at Third World Network. Views are personal. (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)