The national medicines regulatory body has mandated that all pharmaceutical companies and drug importers incorporate 2-D barcodes on their medicine packaging within a fortnight.
A discussion on strategies to suppress the distribution of counterfeit drugs occurred in a meeting of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP) policy board on Wednesday.
The meeting, led by the Ministry of National Health Services Secretary, Iftikhar Shillwani, directed DRAP to send cautionary letters to pharmaceutical companies and importers not incorporating barcodes on their product packaging..
The Utility of 2-D Barcodes
The meeting noted that a 2-D barcode, which aids in identifying medicines, would reduce the production and sale of fake drugs.
2-D barcodes, or two-dimensional barcodes, are graphical images that store information horizontally, like 1-D barcodes, and vertically, providing a substantially larger storage capacity than 1-D barcodes.
A single 2-D barcode can store up to 7,089 characters instead of the 20-character limit of a 1-D barcode. Quick response (QR) codes, allowing swift data access, are a type of 2-D barcode.
The National Health Services secretary chairs the policy board, which includes health secretaries from all provinces and regions, the DRAP chief executive officer, and six experts from the public and private sectors. DRAP operates under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination.
 mandates the use of 2-D barcodes on medicine packaging. Learn more about this key step in the battle against counterfeit drugs.){kind=link}