India planning barcodes, SMS authentication for all medicines

India continues to press ahead with ambitious plans to protect its medicine supply chains from counterfeit and spurious products. The latest proposal is to have a unique identifier (UID) code added to all drugs sold in the domestic market.

The move, unveiled by India's Drug Consultative Committee at its last meeting on February 15, follows an earlier requirement for all drugs manufactured in Indian for export to carry serialised barcodes by July 1, 2011 (see India sets challenging timeframe for barcoding drug exports).

Interestingly, under the proposals the barcodes will also accompanied by the UID in user-readable format, in order to allow consumers to self-authenticate their medicines by sending the UID via text message to a phone number, according to a Times of India report.

Similar SMS-based authentication schemes have already been piloted in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana but, if the DCC's plans are realised, India could become the first country to embrace SMS authentication on a national scale.

Some Indian drugmakers have already taken the plunge independently of any government mandate. Last year for example, Unichem Laboratories purchased 70 million codes from technology provider PharmaSecure in order to protect its anxiety treatment Trika (alprazolam) and Losar (losartan) for high blood pressure from counterfeiitng and diversion.

Meanwhile Kezzler, another technology provider with both serialisation and SMS authentication capabilities and a number of clients among India's pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) sectors, is running a series of workshops in India next month with the aim of helping drugmakers meet the country's new requirements.

The proposals as agreed by the DCC will now be reviewed by India's Drug Technical Advisory Board, according to local press reports.

Mark Davison of consultancy Blue Sphere Health told SecuringPharma.com that sources in India seem confident that the scheme will go ahead, even though the timescale for implementation could be flexible.

Forward-thinking manufacturers may well decide to start printing UID codes for SMS authentication as a staging post towards a full-blown serialisation via 2D codes, he suggested.

The move is expected to meet opposition, however, from small and medium-sized pharmaceutical manufacturers, which are concerned about the extra cost involved in adding barcodes and UIDs to product labelling.

However, the Drug Controller General of India, Dr. Surinder Singh, insisted that manufacturers would be given sufficient time to implement the changes and that the cost per pack would fall dramatically once the technology is widely adopted.