DRAP directs pharma companies to print barcodes on products

ISLAMABAD: Around 400 pharmaceutical companies across Pakistan would be issued warning letters if they fail to print 2D barcodes on packing of their therapeutic products in next two weeks, officials in the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) said on Wednesday.

“The policy board of DRAP has decided to issue warning letters to over 400 pharmaceutical companies, which are not printing barcodes on packs of their medicines and therapeutic products,” an official of the DRAP told The News.

In order to discourage counterfeit medicines’ production, DRAP had made printing of barcode on medicines’ packs mandatory in 2018 but so far, only 30 percent operational pharmaceutical companies are complying with the regulatory body’s directives.

The DRAP official said only 200 out of the 627operational pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan were printing barcodes on the packing of their products while over 400 were still not following the directives, which would be issued warning letters.

According to rules, pharmaceutical manufacturers and importers must print 2D barcoding on the packaging of their products, the official said adding that putting such measures as 2D barcode matrix for identification of medicinal products help in eradication of spurious drugs that pose a serious threat to health of citizens.

He said companies have been given two weeks’ time for printing of barcodes, as per rules, adding that DRAP will immediately issue warning letters to all those pharmaceutical companies that have not registered their barcode data with DRAP and are not printing 2D barcodes on packing of their products.

He further informed that DRAP Policy Board has also approved the Rs1.8 billion budget for the drug regulatory authority for the year 2023-24 and added that some other policy decisions were also taken by the board, which would be conveyed in the days to come.