Pharmaceutical industry and trade represented by IDMA, AIOCD and others have given total backing to the government's move to introduce   a unique ID, bar coding and SMS alert system in the country at a high level meeting held by the task force for developing software for drug manufacturing and tracking system.

Most of them were of the view that having an effective tracking system in the country is durable and should be implemented as it will help in maintaining the quality of the drugs manufactured in the country.

There was a general consensus among all the stake holders on the need for having an organised track and trace system. They expressed this at a two day meeting that was held at the Gujarat FDCA's office which was aimed at getting inputs from the stake holders.

H G Koshia, commissioner, Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat who is also the chairman of the task force, informed, “Our main agenda is to formulate and implement an effective drug manufacturing and tracking system in the country with the support and co-operation of the stakeholders. After discussion with the software and hardware providers who were also present at the meeting we were able to get a better prospective of it and are hopeful that after some more deliberation we will be able to take some definite decisions.”

Since the main aim of the meeting was to understand the demands of the stake holders and make them a part of this whole process no particular decision was taken during this meeting.

Koshia pointed out that though majority of the stake holders gave a positive view, there were some representing the small scale industry who expressed there concerns over the costs involved in implementing this system when finalised.

He clarified, “As of now the committee is responsible to give a detailed report on the mechanisation needed for the implementation of this track and trace system in the country. But we are trying our best to include them into our meetings so that we can discuss the issues and try to get a feasible solution. We will try our best to make it affordable to everyone involved in it without compromising on quality.”

He stressed that cost is not a major issue since most of the companies already have unique id and bar coding system installed and they would only be needed to upgrade it as required.

The task force which was set up by the Union health ministry to develop software for drug manufacturing and tracking system will have its third meeting in mid-July to discuss the further developments. If everything goes as planned, then India will be the first country in the world to have such a track and trace system in place that will help the customers to keep a tab on the source of the medicines from beginning to the end of its journey.