Union Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has now allocated Rs.75 crore to the pharmaceutical sector for the implementation of bar codes which comes into effect from October 1, 2011.


Under the financing scheme, the government has stated that for the one time registration fee, it would provide 75 per cent of assistance only to the Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs). There are various slabs for identifying the registration fees based on the stock keeping units (SKUs). For instance, SKUs between 0 to 100, the registration fee is Rs.50,000. For 100 to 1,000 it would be around Rs.65,000 and so on.


SMEs from the pharmaceuticals, Ayurveda and Homoeopathy drug production segment have already begun to seek the assistance. In order to get the full benefit of the assistance from the government the MSME Development Institute in Bangalore has now teamed-up with the Karnataka Drugs and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (KDPMA) to identify the units which would require the assistance as MSME is keen to offer the bar codes in bulk to fulfill the execution requirements, V V Prasad, assistant director, MSME Development Centre, Ministry of MSME told Pharmabiz.


The Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) a premier voluntary state level non-government Institution of small scale industrialists represented by units other than pharma have already ensured 2,000 units have helped to achieve 100 per cent bar coding implementation over the last four months. “Now we have approached KDPMA to help units under its umbrella to assist in the bar coding requirements,” he added.


In an effort to create a massive awareness and sensitization programme on bar code, KDPMA organized a seminar in association with MSME Development Centre. For the pharma units in north Karnataka, MSME Development Centre is coordinating with the North Karnataka Pharmaceutical Drug Manufacturers Association.


According to PR Madhusoodanan, Assistant Director General of Foreign Trade the notification issued by DGFT via reference No. RE-2011/2009-2014, dated 10.1.2011 has now made it obligatory for all Indian Pharma exporters to fix bar codes on exported medicines, effective from October 1, 2011. Exporters of pharma products will adopt a trace and track system and incorporate its features for exported medicines using bar code technology as per GS1 global standards.


The GS1 Identification keys are GTIN which is Global Trade Item Number for the Products or Services. The SSCC known as Serial Shipping Container Codes is for Individual Logistics Units. The GLN (Global Location Numbers) is for Physical Locations and Legal Entities.


Specifically for the pharma sector, DGFT Public Notice and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare have now three phases for implementation. The first phase is for the Tertiary Level Packaging which begins from October 1, 2011 onwards. The phase II which is for Secondary Level Packaging begins on January 1, 2012. The phase III for Primary Level Packaging commences from July 1, 2012.


In order to comply with the DGFT requirements, there is need to generate GTINs for all packaging levels the company prefix number as per the procedure. Therefore the first Barcode will have the GTIN with Expiry Date and Batch No. The second bar code will have the SSCC. The GTIN 13 has 13 digits. The company prefix item number will always add up to 12 digits. The 13th digit is the Check Digit, explained P Senthilnathan, area business manager, Bartronics Limited.