Even as the implementation of barcode is mired in legal wrangle, the industry has moved the commerce ministry to exempt all Ayush products from the provisions requiring barcode affixing on export formulations and extracts.
A team of senior industry leaders have taken up the matter with the commerce ministry recently and the issue was raised at the meeting of the Consultative Group on Pharmaceutical Exports, chaired by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma last month.
The matter is expected to be examined by the Committee of Secretaries which will be constituted to go into the different issues confronted by the pharmaceutical industry as per the direction of the Commerce Minister, sources said.
Industry leaders suggested that the most players in the Ayush sector were not in a position to invest further and implement the trace and track technology even for the tertiary packaging which was made mandatory from October last year.
The Commerce Ministry had extended the implementation of the barcoding for secondary and primary packaging for another six months to January 1, 2013, even as a case is pending in the Madras High Court over the issue.
As per the commerce ministry’s notification dated January 10, 2011, barcoding was to be enforced in the country in phased manner from October 1 last year. The trace and track technology has been made compulsory for tertiary level packaging from October 1 last year and that on secondary level packaging was to be made compulsory from January 1, 2012 and the new system was to be made mandatory on primary level packaging from July 1, 2012.
Source : http://pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=70385&sid=1
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