Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal chaired a meeting to review progress on the implementation of 2D barcodes on medicines after October 9.
The meeting was attended by the chief executive officer of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), officials of relevant institutions and all stakeholders.
According to the Ministry of Health, pharmaceutical companies have started the process of implementing 2D barcodes on nearly 80 per cent of medicines.
The federal minister and the Ministry of Health decided to issue formal notices to companies that have not submitted their data. The ministry said strict legal action would be taken against companies that fail to comply despite the given deadline.
Mustafa Kamal said production units of companies that do not submit medicine data would be sealed.
The health minister said the elimination of fake medicines had become unavoidable. He said there would be no compromise on the implementation of 2D barcodes for ending counterfeit medicines.
Mustafa Kamal said a zero-tolerance policy would be adopted in this regard. He directed all pharmaceutical companies to submit their serialisation data to DRAP in accordance with the prescribed requirements.
He said the measure was aimed at ensuring effective monitoring of medicines, transparency and a track-and-trace system.
