The Government of India has simplified barcode procedures for pharmaceutical companies by including the mono-cartons containing medicines under the primary packaging category.
The move is part of the government's plan to increase exports manifold in the next few years as the global generic market is expected to increase.
Directorate General of Foreign Trade said, "Mono cartons containing strips/vials/bottles shall be treated as Primary level packaging."
The barcode helps in tracking and tracing of origin of drugs in order to reduce the chances of misidentification of genuine drugs as spurious, sub-standard or counterfeit.
The primary level packaging is the first-level product packaging including the bottle, can, jar, tube, containing the saleable items.
Following the change, the government had asked pharmaceutical companies to deploy track and trace capability for their exported medicines using barcode technology at three levels of packaging including primary, secondary and tertiary.
