'Track and trace': 300 top-selling medicines to sport QR code to curb spurious drugs

Industry sources say because of this additional printing, the cost will go up by 5 to 7 percent.

A quick response (QR) code has been made mandatory for the top 300 widely used drug brands produced from August 1 — which will hit pharmacies over the next few weeks — as part of the Centre’s ‘track and trace’ mechanism to check the sale of counterfeit and spurious medicines, and ensure quality, a report has said.

On scanning the QR code, essential information such as manufacturing licence and batch number will facilitate the medicine’s authentication.

Reports said in the first phase from August 1, the QR code will be printed on 300 top-selling medicines, which account for about Rs 50,000 crore of the pharma retail market.

The government's move affected Dolo (Micro Labs), Allegra (Sanofi), Asthalin (Cipla), Augmentin (GSK), Unwanted 72 (Mankind Pharma), Saridon (Bayer Pharmaceuticals), Limsey (Abbott), Calpol (GSK), Corex (Pfizer), Thyronorm ( Abbott), the Business Standard reported on August 1.

Also Read: Will pose an initial challenge, but a well-thought-out move, drug makers say of mandatory QR codes on branded medicines

Moneycontrol couldn't verify the report independently.

The health ministry in March had asked the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) to shortlist drug brands that can be included for implementation of mandatory QR codes.

The financial daily quoted Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), which represents big drug companies, as saying that the industry is ready for this. A GSK spokesperson said the company is prepared for the change and the cost has already been factored in.

Also Read: Govt pharma body calls for banning e-pharmacies, alleges fake prescriptions by ghost doctors

Concerns

However, industry sources are of the view that because of this additional printing, the cost will go up by 5 to 7 percent and there may be a delay in the preparation of the batch.

“The industry has already met the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and voiced its concerns. We have requested considering the fact that there will be a cost escalation due to this step, and most of these drugs are already under price control,” an anonymous source told the daily.

He added that since these are top-selling medicines and most of these drug brands belong to big companies. Therefore, it should not take long for the industry to make a switch.

Though the move was conceptualised a decade ago, it has been on the back burner because the domestic retail pharma industry was ill-prepared for the switch, and lack of requisite software and technology systems was a big challenge.