Commerce Ministry plans to make barcodes compulsory for exports of pharma products.

Seeking to put at rest the controversies and blown up apprehensions about the export of spurious drugs from India, the Commerce Ministry is planning to make the barcode technology compulsory for all exports of pharmaceutical products from the country.

The Commerce Secretary, at a high-level meeting with the Pharmexcil here recently, accepted the recommendations of the council which had been asked to identify suitable new technologies to eliminate the apprehensions of counterfeit drugs repeatedly highlighted by the foreign media.

The Pharmexcil, which had appointed a consultant for the task, suggested three technologies-barcoding, digital mass serialisation (DMS)/unique number and hologram technologies--, based on the views of the industry.

The Commerce Ministry felt that hologram is a common technology and opted for the barcoding and DMS. The ministry will issue a public notice after some time to make barcoding compulsory for all exports of pharma products in the first phase and the use of unique number/digital mass serialisation will be introduced later, it is learnt.

The industry has asked for one year transition period as the new technology for packaging would mandate the companies to seek changes in the registration in many countries and it would take some time.

Hence the commerce secretary is learnt to have assured the industry to take time and come back so that the ministry can issue the public notice, sources said.

The Pharmexcil had been given the task of identifying the feasible technologies to track the medicines exported. The agency had appointed Mumbai-based Candle Partners to evaluate the new technologies and shortlist them in consultation with the industry. Compared to other technologies, the three suggested were said to be cost-effective, as per the report by the consultant.

Pune-based company Bilcare had proposed to the commerce ministry to use radio frequency technology to trace medicines from the moment it is despatched from the factory to where it will be consumed. But most of the Pharmexcil members and the small scale industry in general opposed the move which would give monopoly to the company and was not comparatively cost effective.

The Commerce ministry initiated the steps to put in place some system after repeated stories in the foreign media continued to malign the image of the domestic industry. Reports, allegedly backed up by the multinationals, sought to project India as a hub of spurious medicines, notwithstanding the official clarifications and tests that confirmed only a miniscule quantity of drugs in India was spurious or substandard.

Source : pharmabiz.com