This move will help medicine manufacturers to source and get good quality APIs, and ultimately increase the quality of medicines in India and hence the patient's health," he added.Īdding that the move will help in controlling the counterfeit of drugs, Alok Malik, Group Vice President and Head, India Formulations, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd, said, "Move to introduce QR codes in medicine packaging can greatly help in controlling the counterfeiting of drugs by tracking their journey from factory to patient. These QR codes shall contain on their label information like APIs, name and address of the manufacturer, batch number, batch size, date of manufacturing, date of expiry or retesting, etc. "Secondly, the Health Ministry-issued rule notification that will be applicable from January 1, 2023, further mandates that companies put QR codes on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) manufactured or imported in India. While the government has started implementing it phase-wise the first phase being for the top 300 brands, it is a much-needed move and will help in driving and maintaining the quality of the medicines, thereby, acutely focusing on patient health and safety." The issue of counterfeit medicines or forge selling is one that worries companies immensely, and QR codes will significantly help in curbing this issue. In future, we may see all the information stored on a QR code and only minimal information on the actual packaging of pharmaceutical medicines, drugs and other products," he added.Ĭommenting about the NPPA move to shortlist the top 300 brands of drugs which will have to put QR codes on their packages, enable tracking and ensure authenticity, Sanjeev Jain, Co-founder and Director, Akums Pharma, said, "With this change, it will be easy to identify genuine medicines from the counterfeit ones since the QR code will contain many details like the manufacturer and batch number, expiry, etc. The medicine packs that come with a unique QR code, will help trace the source and affirm the authenticity of the products. "It is certainly a welcome move by the government which will soon make QR code mandatory on the pack of 300 medicines. QR codes for medicine administration can inform the healthcare providers about the correct dosage, timing of the medicine, and procedure, thereby, saving time and error." QR codes can even allow for better data monitoring by a pharmaceutical company. The information stored through a QR code is much more dynamic and engaging, and can also be easily amended remotely if required legally. Also, the information about the medicine can be easily shared with others, if required. The patient doesn’t need to solely rely on the information physically printed on the packaging of the medicine. A QR code can allow easier access to information on the prescribed medicine by the patient. Medicine packages that now come with QR codes offer transparency about the manufacturing process, contents of the drugs and expiry date. Drug counterfeit has recently emerged as a global threat. Informing that QR Codes for drug safety can go a very long way in managing drug counterfeit and proper administration of medicines to patients, Nikkhil K Masurkar, Executive Director, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals, said, "Pharmaceutical companies strive hard to maintain the authenticity of medicines and make sure undetected items are eradicated in the manufacturing of medicines. The mandatory QR codes on APIs will help in checking or eliminating the sub-standard or falsified medicines. A few have expressed concern that it is an exercise that will simply increase compliance by making small and medium-scale manufacturers perform an additional task when creating their labels.įew pharma industry experts and stakeholders informed that 20 per cent of the medicines that are manufactured in India are counterfeit. The new proposal is set to come into force at the start of May 2023. Although the varied pharma companies have informed that the move will help in curbing the issue of counterfeiting. A recent move by the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority ( NPPA) has informed that the top 300 brands of drugs like analgesics, pain relievers, anti-platelet, vitamin supplements, blood-sugar-lowering medicines and contraceptive tablets must come with QR codes on their packages, in a bid to ensure authenticity and enable tracing. New Delhi: The Quick Response (QR) codes for medicines have been a long-debated issue in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
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