Govt Makes It Mandatory for Drug Exporters to Affix Barcodes.

New Delhi, (PTI) The government today made it mandatory for drug exporter to affix barcodes on their products to facilitate tracing and tracking of consignments.

The move follows reports that fake drugs with ''Made in India'' tag were exported by some Chinese companies to some African countries like Nigeria.

"Exporters of pharmaceutical products will be required to affix barcodes on their export products to facilitate tracing and tracking of their products, " Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a public notice.

In June 2009, Nigeria''s drug regulatory authority National Agency for Food and Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) had reported about the detention of a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic pharmaceuticals labeled ''Made in India'' which were actually produced in China.

DGFT, an arm of the Commerce Ministry responsible for export and import related matters, said that in order to enable exporters of pharmaceutical products for incorporation of this technology, "adequate time is being given".

"...it will be made applicable on July 1 , 2011," it said.

A barcode is a machine-readable data, which contains information about the product.

Besides, the exporter will have to submit a copy of certificate of analysis issued by the manufacturer of the respective product, a copy of certificate issued by an
approved laboratory of the importing country, it added. PTI RR

Source : news.in.msn.com