The Centre may soon ask drugmakers to print or affix bar codes or QR codes on the packets of medicines to help find out and trace genuine drug products, News18.com has learnt.
The move holds relevance as it will eliminate the challenge of counterfeit products or fake medicines being sold in India. According to an earlier estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO), around 35 per cent fake drugs sold globally come from India.
“All preparations have been done and the move is likely to be implemented within the next few weeks,” a government official privy to the development told News18.com.
“As the move will be mandatory, we are discussing if select medicines could undergo the barcoding in the first phase followed by the entire pharma industry later. Hence, a list of top selling 300 brands will be released which will first adopt the QR or barcode mandate in the first round.”
These brands would include the top-selling popular medicines in the Indian pharma market such as Allegra, Dolo, Augmentin, Saridon, Calpol, and Thyronorm among others.
“Once the first phase goes off smoothly, we will go for all high volume molecules,” the source said, adding that the government is exploring setting up of a central database agency where India can have a single bar code provider for the entire industry.
How will barcoding work?
In the draft notification issue in June, the government said the manufacturers of the formulation products will print or affix bar codes or quick response codes on their primary packaging label and on the secondary package label that store data or information legible with software applications to facilitate authentication.
The stored data or information shall include a unique product identification code, proper and generic name of the drug, brand name, name and address of the manufacturer, batch number, date of manufacturing, date of expiry and manufacturing license number.
Why does India need barcodes?
In 2019, the United States has warned India of its growing problem of counterfeit or spurious drugs.
In its annual ‘Special 301 Report’ on intellectual property protection and review of ‘notorious markets’ for piracy and counterfeiting, the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) blamed India for its growing problem of counterfeit medicines.
It said that almost 20 per cent of all pharmaceutical goods sold in the Indian market are counterfeit, a damning claim considering the growing pharmaceutical market of India and its decades-old reputation of being the “pharmacy to the world”.
While the move to roll out bar codes was in the making since 2016, it is likely to be implemented now.
News18.com had reported in March 2022 that the office of Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had instructed the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to “make India free of spurious and poor quality medicines”. The move to make coding mandatory is in sync with the minister’s instructions.
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