Indian Government Mandates QR Codes for Drug Packages

Indian government has made QR (quick response) codes mandatory on packages of drug manufacturing ingredients to crack down on fake medicines.

The Union health ministry gazette notified guidelines, saying "every active pharmaceutical ingredient (API; bulk drug) manufactured or imported in India shall bear a quick response code on its label at each level, packaging that store data or information readable with a software application to facilitate tracking."

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‘Every active pharmaceutical ingredient shall bear a QR code that store data or information readable with a software application to facilitate tracking in India.’
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The data stored in the code is expected to have unique product ID, name of the API, brand name, name and address of the manufacturer, batch number, batch size, date of manufacturing, date of expiry or retesting, serial shipping container code, manufacturing license or import license number, and special storage condition required.

API is the core ingredient for manufacturing a drug. If it is fake or sub-standard, its quality is jeopardized. A significant chunk of APIs is imported to India from China.

Tthe Government is taking measures to ensure that India can manufacture most of it indigenously.

The changes in the rules of the drug were made under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, after consultation with the regulator's subject expert panel— the drugs technical advisory board. The initiative will help easily distinguish between real and fake drugs.

India's drug regulatory authority is also amending the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Rules, 1945.

Source-Medindia