The Union commerce ministry finally made it clear last week that it will go ahead with its plan to implement secondary bar coding compulsory for pharmaceutical exports from January 1, 2013. The ministry’s direction states that the implementation of the second phase of bar coding will be made mandatory from January 1 and the third phase from July 1. The ministry had already introduced the first phase of bar coding on pharma exports for tertiary level packaging from October 1 last year and it has been trying hard to implement the second phase from January 1, 2012 but has been unsuccessful with no co operation from the exporting community. The issue is already under consideration of the Madras High Court and how the ruling of the court this week will impact the commerce ministry's plan is to be seen. Bar coding is stated to enable the exporters to build a track and trace capability for their medicines using bar code technology as per GS 1 global standards. GS 1 is a global organization that designs and execute such standards for consumer products. Now, with the last week’s directive the ministry has sought support from all exporters as the move is expected to strengthen India’s image as a reliable exporter of quality pharmaceutical products in the international market.

The initiative to introduce bar coding for pharmaceutical exports was started by the commerce ministry some years ago in the wake of allegations from certain importing countries that some Indian firms are exporting counterfeit or sub-standard products. These charges were not totally baseless as there exist certain unscrupulous elements also among Indian pharmaceutical industry. By making bar coding mandatory, Indian pharmaceutical companies may be shielded to some extend from counterfeiting of Indian products by manufacturers of  other countries. But the ministry’s attempts were being consistently resisted by the exporting community. The objection has been mainly from medium and  small exporters numbering over 2000. These exporters were of the view that bar coding will not be a fool proof technology and it is possible for counterfeiters to copy, create and use bar codes also. They were also objecting on the ground that additional costs involved in adopting this technology will be unbearable to small units. The commerce ministry should consider this point of the small exporters and some incentives need to be offered to offset a part of this their additional costs. A collective effort is needed for India to play the role of  a world leader in the global generic drug market exporting over $12 billion of its production annually to more than 180 countries. With expiries of several drug patents during last three to four years India’s role in the global pharmaceutical market is going to be much more crucial.