Even as the D-day of July 1, when the barcoding will become mandatory for the Indian exporters, is approaching fast, the small scale pharma industry has urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to keep the implementation of barcoding in abeyance till such time when it is reconsidered and industry is taken into confidence so that exports of formulations from India are not lost to China, just the way India lost the entire bulk drugs business to it.
Explaining the futility of barcoding, the SME Pharma Industries Confederation (SPIC) said the customers for affordable generics are third world poor countries who neither have computers nor barcode readers at each stage of sale which is essential to facilitate the mandated barcoding. Power condition is worse than India in these countries. And fakes is not an issue with them either. The issue is unnecessarily blown out of proportion by Indian government despite the fact that only 11 fakes were found out of 24000 samples lifted for the purpose in a special survey of Indian market by CDSCO in 2009.
Apprising the Prime Minister about the origin of barcoding, SPIC said it was devised as a means of inventory control by supermarkets in the west as it is impossible to physically control inventory of thousands of items. And pharma MNCs use barcoding to prevent transfer of medicines from one country to another as their MRP varies in each country.
The sole barcode providers appointed by government namely GS1 themselves agree that barcodes cannot prevent fakes. Since barcodes can be replicated, it can strengthen acceptance of fakes on the contrary, the SPIC in its letter to the Prime Minister said.
Describing the adverse impact of barcode on SMEs, SPIC said many importing customers send their artworks for labels and packings as per norms of importing country. All such orders would be cancelled or material rejected. Barcodes have no use when non-branded drugs for hospitals in foreign countries are exported as they are never counterfeited like expensive brands of MNCs. A strip of 10 tablets of paracetamol is exported for Rs.1.50 each. There is simply no motivation as it will be like counterfeiting one rupee coins.
Barcoding is impossible when labels of medicines are too small like Tetanus Toxoid and Zentel – size 20mmx25mm.
Cost of mandated barcoding is too high as each strip of tablets has to bear a separate code and account has to be maintained. Cost of registration alone to each pharma SME shall be around Rs.20000 per month apart from monthly cost of say Rs.1,00,000 for barcoding for an average SME. This is virtually handing over the export market to China or MNCs to the detriment of Indian SMEs, SPIC said while listing the financial implications of the barcoding.