The task force, set up by the Union health ministry to develop software for drug manufacturing and tracking system, will be meeting various stakeholders from the South on July 14 and 15 in Bangalore to discuss and to get their opinion on the track and trace system.

To control the export of counterfeit drugs from the country, the ministry of commerce is contemplating to implement the track and trace system for all the medicines that are exported from India. This task force was set up by the ministry with an aim to collect information on the ways to implement the track and trace system in the country.

This will be the third meeting of the task force, which was set up in mid-March to find a software that could be used for tracking the drugs right from the manufacturers to the retailers to check the menace of counterfeiting of drugs in the country. The first meeting was held in Delhi followed by a second one in Gujarat.  In this meeting the main aim of the task force will be to interact with various service providers from the south on the drug tracking system and getting their views.

According to H G Koshia, commissioner, Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat and the chairman of the task force, “Our main aim is to submit to the government a database on the best ways on how to develop a mechanism to implement this track and trace system in the most affordable and convenient manner in the country. Thus we want to make sure that we tap all the possible route that will guide us in our project and provide us with information. That is why we are organising this meeting at different strategic locations across the country.”

He informed that as of now there is a mixed response from the industry on the track and trace system basically due to the fear of investing money for the implementation. “We are here only to take the industries' response and to gauge on the possible ways of implementation, but we will try our best to ensure that whatever technology is being adopted will be affordable to the Indian pharma industry.”

He said that if things go as planned, then the committee will be able to send in the detailed report to the health ministry by the end of this year. Once the track and trace system is implemented in the country all the manufacturers in the country will have to adopt the new software and the state drug authorities will be liable to keep a tab on the companies and to check whether it is implemented effectively.