Eliminating spurious, fake medicines: Govt to mandate pharma cos to print bar code on 300 drug formulations
In the first phase, 300 drugs from top pharma brands having around 35 percent of the total market share will be brought under this ambit and by December next year, all drugs may be covered.;
New Delhi: In order to curb the menace of spurious, counterfeit medicines across the country, the government is finalising the process of mandating pharmaceutical companies to print bar codes on the packages of 300 drug formulations so that information such as manufacturing licence and batch number can be accessed upon scanning.
"A sizable of the drugs mentioned in the list are mostly bought over the counter exposing people to the possibility of consuming counterfeit medicines. This amendment aims to prevent supply of fake medicines and ensure improvement in public healthcare," an official source told PTI.
"A bar code or QR code will authenticate whether a particular drug is original or not," the official added.
The Union health ministry had issued a draft gazette notification regarding the same in June seeking comments and feedback from the public.
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