Bar - Coding Of Drugs To Ensure Safety, Boost Exports: Khullar.

The government is in an advanced stage of setting up an autonomous drug procurement agency at the Centre.

There is an urgent need to roll out track and trace bar-coding technology in the Indian pharmaceutical sector, which will not only help boost exports but also assure buyers in the country that the drugs they are buying are top-quality, said Rahul Khullar, Commerce Secretary, at a conference-cum-exposition on “Track and Trace Bar-Coding Technology for Pharmaceuticals” organized by the PHD Chamber in New Delhi on Tuesday.

“Certification can help vouch for quality of goods being traded, which allows markets to function effectively and bar-coding provides that critical certificate,” Khullar said.

The Commerce Secretary said there are three reasons why bar-coding is critical to Indian pharma industry.

A critical component of the Indian pharma sector, he said, is safety. “We have to be able to assure buyers (within the country and abroad) that the medicines they are buying are world-class”; introduction of bar-coding can ensure genuineness of the product.

Also, in a country like India, medicines have to be affordable. “We have been able to ensure that. But since medicines are cheap, it is also easy and cheap to imitate them. So, it is important to ensure that not only are drugs cheap, but they are also genuine,” Khullar said.

India currently exports over $9 billion of drugs. The government wants to increase that figure manifold in the next few years. There is a big market for generics in the developed world. But the only way Indian pharma can tap the market is by ensuring quality. “Bar-coding will ensure quality and protect our reputation,” the Commerce Secretary said.

Admitting that enforcement of legislation to check counterfeiting was tough, Khullar said track and trace bar-coding will make even ordinary buyers “enforcers”. “A customer can buy a drug, SMS the bar code on the pack to the manufacturer and instantly know if the drug is genuine,” he explained.

Khullar urged the pharma industry, which “has a huge social responsibility”, to adopt the bar-coding technology voluntarily.

L C Goyal, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said the government plans to provide essential medicines to citizens for free. “The government is in an advanced stage of setting up an autonomous drug procurement agency at the Centre. We have also advised states to set up similar agencies,” he said.

Goyal said the government would need to procure “safe, genuine and affordable medicines” for the masses. Bar-coding would guarantee that safety. It is necessary not only for exports but also for the domestic population, which has a right to demand genuine and affordable medicines, he said.

Goyal said in 2008, the government amended the law to ensure stricter punishment for counterfeiting drugs. But he admitted that enforcement has been a problem. “There is a need to strengthen the drug regulatory system. This will be a key element of the 12th Five-Year Plan,” he said.

“This technology should be adopted within a fixed timeline and ought to be neutral to prices. Drugs should continue to remain affordable,” Goyal said.

He suggested that big pharma companies should create a fund to help propagate the technology. “The government could offer tax breaks to the companies contributing to this fund,” Goyal said.

Salil Bhandari, President, PHD Chamber, said the government has mandated bar-coding of medicines as per GS1 standards, and there is a need to disseminate information about this to all stakeholders so that the Indian pharma industry can rise to the challenge.

He said the Indian pharma industry is poised for rapid growth and there is a need to weed out counterfeit drugs.

Ramesh Adige, Chairman, Health Committee, PHD Chamber, and President, Ranbaxy, said, “This conference-cum-exposition is the first attempt at bringing together the industry, companies providing bar-coding technology and policymakers. All stakeholders have been able to have a dialogue on the way forward and also understand global experiences.”

“The WHO says that about 10% of the drugs in the world are counterfeit. Our job is to make life as difficult as possible for counterfeiters through legislation and other measures,” Adige said.

Mukul Joshi, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Dr Surinder Singh, Drugs Controller General of India, and Mr Rajeev Kher, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, gave the participants valuable insights into government policy.

Source : indiainfoline.com