Deadline to affix barcodes for pharma exports extended

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SME Times News Bureau | 24 Dec, 2011
The government has extended its deadlines of mandatory barcoding for pharma exports till Jan 2013, reports media on Friday.

In June, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said that from July 2012, medicines exported from India would be required to have barcodes.

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data on the product it is attached to and facilitates its tracking.

"Earlier, the requirement of affixing barcodes on primary level packaging was to come into effect from July 1, 2012. Now more time is being allowed," DGFT said.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry had sought more time to implement the process required for mandatory barcoding as the small-scale pharma firms lack infrastructure.

"We are in constant talks with Commerce Ministry in this regard. The implementation is not feasible for small-scale pharma firms because the cost is very high," Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council Chairman N R Munjal said.

DGFT said the deadline for bar coding on primary packaging -- the material that first envelops the product and is in direct contact with the contents such as ampoule, vial, bottle, cartridge, blisters -- is extended till early 2013.

For secondary packaging -- intermediate medical packing -- it has been extended till July 1, 2012. Earlier, the set time line was January 1, 2012, it said.

DGFT had said exporters will need to affix barcodes entailing unique product identification code, unique serial number of the respective packs, batch number and expiry number.

Munjal said the DGFT itself doesn't have the adequate infrastructure to read barcodes. "Only barcoding will not benefit...The DGFT itself must have the central server system that enables the barcode reader," he added.

According to experts, the move is not only aimed at improving reputation of the Indian pharma industry in the international market but it also aims at curbing illegal channels of trade. For instance, spurious drugs found in Nigeria in 2009 were labelled 'Made in India' but were finally traced to China.

Pharmaceutical companies and exporters have been raising concerns that affixing barcode is "not feasible" and expensive. It cannot resolve the problem of spurious drugs, he added.