The commerce ministry today reiterated its decision on making secondary bar coding compulsory from January 1, citing that it has already given enough time to the industry to adopt to these changes. Rajiv Kher, additional secretary in the union commerce ministry stressed that there will be no compromise on this issue and the government is determined to go ahead with its decision aimed at benefiting the brand India and ensuring supply of high quality medicines.

The ministry further requested the stakeholders to support them in their novel cause as it has been taken with a view to strengthen the Indian pharma and establish them as one of the most trusted supplier of all the generic drugs across the world. With a view to ensure smooth transition, the ministry also suggested the stakeholders to discuss with GS1, the global service provider and Wipro, official agency who conducted the study as per the requirements of the government on various modalities.

In this matter, the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is soon expected to arrange a meeting with the top CEO's of the pharma industry with GS1 and Wipro excecutives to discuss the same. Dr P V Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil informed that the meeting which is likely to happen on December 24 will be to discuss and understand the requirements of the notification, procedure, cost implication etc.

He said, “In spite of the repeated representation from the industry for additional time, the governments still has not shown any indication to relent and remains to be adamant on its decision. The industry is still hopeful that the government will relax its norms for bar coding and provide some reprieve to them. As of now, to ensure that the industry is sensitised and prepared, government has suggested a meeting with the GS1 and Wipro which may happen soon.”

It is understood that the soon after this CEO meet, the stakeholders are again expected to have a closed door discussion with the commerce ministry in the end of this month as a follow up.

Trace and track technology which was adopted by the government to address the issues and apprehensions about the export of spurious drugs from India, was made compulsory for tertiary level packaging from October 1 last year. The latest directive of the commerce ministry states that the implementation of the second and third phases of barcoding would be made compulsory from January 1 and July 1, 2013 respectively. However, the industry maintains that they require more time to adapt to these changes, as it is a cumbersome and an economically unviable process for them.

Its understood that even though the stakeholders have appreciated the governments effort to help the industry they have openlyshown their displeasure over the government's decision stating that it will be a huge economic burden on small scale enterprises. Interestingly, the plan to implement bar-codes on pharma exports also depends on the  expected ruling by the Madras High Court until which the issue will be deemed to be in a logjam.