Indian government has exempted barcoding plan for primary packaging for medicines, comprising single tablets, capsules and vials.
The proposal was introduced by the governement in a bid to track and trace export consignments following allegations on entry of fake drugs into the market.
Upon opposition from producers claiming that the adoption of modern technologies to print unique product identification code on primary packaging as expensive, barcoding has been postponed by the commerce ministry several times.
Further they said that there would be limited space on packaging for printing the stipulated size of barcode.
For the the last two years, barcoding was made mandatory for exporters of pharma products to implement it for secondary as well as tertiary packaging.
Barcoding for tertiary packaging which includes box of strips came into force from October 2012.
For secondary packaging comprising strip of tablets, capsules or vials, the implementation was made compulsory by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) from January 2013.
Commerce secretary Rajeev Kher was quoted by The Economic Times as saying, "The ministry has decided to exempt the industry from adhering to barcoding on primary packaging."
In 2011, the Union Health Ministry of India, as part of its efforts to streamline the procurement and tracking of drugs, has made barcodes using GS1 identification standards mandatory for all drugs, medical devices as well as other medical supplies bought by the government.
Image: India exempts primary packaging for medicines from barcoding stipulation. Photo: Courtesy of vorakorn/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
