The central government decision to make barcode mandatory on medicine covers/wraps
Posted on: 22/Jan/2019 12:09:30 PM
The central government Department of Health has released an order that unique identity of barcode must be printed on the medicine package wraps/cards.
The central government has been procuring medicines every year worth Rs. 20000 Crores and the state governments have been procuring medicines worth Rs. 650 Crores every year. Though the procurement is carried out from medicine manufactures with the proper licence, authority, and reputation, there still existed a scope for maloperations – printing new expiry dates on medicines whose expiry dates are already over and then trying to sell them. Further, there was scope for procurement of medicines of suspect low quality without any ‘barcode’ which get infiltrated into the stock procured.
Now, the central government has come up with stringent action to prevent the scope for the malpractices as above. The rules and regulations for the procurement of medicines have been revised and made more stringent.
Especially, the central Department of Health has released an order 2 days ago that ‘barcode’ must be mandatory on the medicine wraps such as cards and sealed packs. The Department of Health has proposed to implement this from 1st April.
This development from the central government order is expected to be extended to the state governments in a gradual manner.
