News
Habit-forming drugs to be bar-coded
Summary
The government is concerned over the ‘dual use’ of these prescription drugs and an illegal trade, citing instances of unauthorized supplies of raw materials to the chemical industry.
NEW DELHI : The health ministry may introduce mandatory bar coding for 11 habit-forming drugs, including some cough syrups, painkillers and sleeping tablets, to stop their misuse and an illicit trade in them.
The list also includes the formulations used to make these drugs. These 11 medicines are: codeine- based cough syrups, fentanyl and its analogues, buprenorphine injections, tramadol, alprazolam, nitrazepam, diazepam, lorazepam, clonazepam, zolpidem and ketamine -- that are commonly used as sleeping pills, for pain relief and to control anxiety.
The government is concerned over the “dual use" of these prescription drugs and an illegal trade, citing instances of unauthorized supplies of raw materials to the chemical industry. QR codes will allow authorities to digitally trace and track the manufacture and purchases of these drugs, which are classed as narcotics.
Last month, the health ministry mandated compulsory quick response (QR) code or bar code on the packaging of 300 lifesaving drugs falling under schedule H—drugs that cannot be purchased without a doctor’s prescription. Some of these commonly used branded drugs are Allegra, Augmentin, Shelcal, Azythral, Calpol, Dolo, Fabiflu, Meftal Spas, Montair and Pan-D.
The government’s drugs consultative committee (DCC) was informed of the QR code recommendation, made by an inter-ministerial committee, in a meeting last month. The panel’s recommendations also covered active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and formulations, said the DCC’s minutes of the meeting, reviewed by Mint.
DCC is an expert panel of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
An official who was part of the meeting said, “These 11 medicines fall under the category of habit-forming drugs. Not only are they being misused, their semi-finished products or raw materials are being trafficked to the chemical industry. That is why it is important to keep surveillance on sale and purchase of these drugs." Bar coding such medicines is expected to furnish a plethora of information like unique product identification code, name of the API, brand name, name and address of the manufacturer, batch number, batch size, and date of manufacture and expiry.
“The (inter-ministerial) committee recommended for introducing bar code/QR code on all formulations containing listed 11 APIs which requires amendment to the Drugs Rules, 1945. It will be helpful in real-time tracking and tracing of the same to prohibit illicit manufacturing as well as sale and purchase at supply chain level of these 11 APIs containing formulations," stated minutes. According to a 2019 report by the ministry of social justice & empowerment and the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, AIIMS, around 2.5 million people are addicted to pharmaceutical habit-forming drugs in India.
Drugs and narcotics had a share of about ₹36,800 crore in the Indian economy in fiscal year 2020, according to statista.com. Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson for comments remained unanswered.
