India's Ministry of Health and Human Welfare has released a draft proposal on 14th June, 2022 which suggests to add barcodes or quick response (QR) codes to the packaging of 300 top medicines.
The manufacturers of drug formulation products as specified in the Schedule H2 of the said rule, shall print or affix Bar Code or Quick Response Code on its primary packaging label or, in case of inadequate space in the primary package label, on the secondary package label that store data or information legible with a software application to facilitate authentication.
The stored data or information shall include the following particulars, namely:
(i) Unique product identification code,
(ii) Proper and generic name of the drug,
(iii) Brand name,
(iv) Name and address of the manufacturer,
(v) Batch number,
(vi) Date of manufacturing,
(vii) Date of expiry
(viii) Manufacturing license number
The requirement is set to come into force at the start of May 2023. Comments are being accepted until 13 July via email at drugsdiv-mohfw@gov.in.
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