Habit-forming drugs to be bar-coded
NEW DELHI : The health ministry may introduce mandatory bar coding for 11 habit-forming drugs, including some cough syrups, painkillers and sleeping tablets, to stop their misuse and an illicit trade in them. The list also includes the formulations used to make these drugs. These 11 medicines are: codeine- based cough syrups, fentanyl and its analogues, buprenorphine injections, tramadol, alprazolam, nitrazepam, diazepam, lorazepam, clonazepam, zolpidem and ketamine -- that are commonly used as sleeping pills, for pain relief and to control anxiety.
The government is concerned over the “dual use" of these prescription drugs and an illegal trade, citing instances of unauthorized supplies of raw materials to the chemical industry. QR codes will allow authorities to digitally trace and track the manufacture and purchases of these drugs, which are classed as narcotics. Last month, the health ministry mandated compulsory quick response (QR) code or bar code on the packaging of 300 lifesaving drugs falling under schedule H—drugs that cannot be purchased without a doctor’s prescription.
Some of these commonly used branded drugs are Allegra, Augmentin, Shelcal, Azythral, Calpol, Dolo, Fabiflu, Meftal Spas, Montair and Pan-D. The government’s drugs consultative committee (DCC) was informed of the QR code recommendation, made by an inter-ministerial committee, in a meeting last month. The panel’s recommendations also covered active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and formulations, said the DCC’s minutes of the meeting, reviewed by Mint.
DCC is an expert panel of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). An official who was part of the meeting said, “These 11 medicines fall under the category of habit-forming drugs. Not only
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