Business of counterfeit medicines will be cracked, QR code will find out whether the medicine is genuine or not

Now consumers will soon be able to check that the medicine they have bought is safe and not fake. The government plans to introduce a ‘track and trace’ system for best-selling drugs to prevent the use of spurious and substandard drugs and ensure quality. Under this, in the first phase, pharmaceutical companies will print or paste barcodes or QR (quick response-QR) codes on the primary product packaging labels of 300 best-selling drugs. Primary product packaging includes bottles, cans, jars or tubes that contain drugs for sale.

This is expected to include a large number of antibiotics, cardiac, pain-relieving pills and anti-allergic drugs sold with an MRP of over Rs 100 per strip, according to a Times of India news. The resolution for this step, however, was taken a decade ago. But it was put on hold due to lack of necessary preparations in the domestic pharma industry. Even the track and trace mechanism for exports has been postponed till April next year. Whereas in the last few years, many cases of fake and substandard medicines have come to the fore in the market.

In a recent case, the Telangana Drugs Authority found the quality of thyroid drug Thyronorm to be poor. The pharmaceutical company that made it, Abbott, said that its thyroid drug Thyronorm was fake. Whereas in another instance a counterfeit drug racket of Glenmark’s blood pressure pill Telma-H was busted in Baddi. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 10% of medical products in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or counterfeit. Although they can be found in every area of ​​the world.

You can easily create QR code yourself, know step-by-step method

Once the government measures and necessary software are implemented, consumers will be able to check the genuineness of the consumer medicine by feeding a unique ID code on a portal (website) of the ministry. They will also be able to track it later via mobile phone or text message. Sources said several options are being studied, including setting up of a central database agency to provide a single barcode for the entire pharmaceutical industry. It may take a few weeks to implement.