QR Codes On Drugs

Govt finalises the draft notification issued in June

To curb the menace of spurious medicines, the government is finalising the process of mandating pharmaceutical companies to print bar code on the packages of 300 drug formulations so that information such as manufacturing licence and batch number can be accessed upon scanning. The amendments to Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945 which, once approved, will come into force from May next year. "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. Based on the comments and further deliberations, the ministry is in the ..

In the first phase of the 'track and trace' mechanism, the QR codes will be printed on the primary packaging like the bottle, can, jar or the strip

The Union Ministry of Health has made amendments to the Drugs Rules, 1945, to implement this

Quick Response, codes can store data and is used for product identification, tracking and marketing