The government has again extended the implementation date of track and trace system for export of drug formulations with respect to maintaining the ‘Parent-Child’ relationship in packaging levels and its uploading on the central portal by six months.

The new deadline for the track and trace system implementation is now April 1, 2021 instead of the earlier date of October 1, 2020 for both Small Scale Industries (SSI) and non-SSI manufactured units, as per a trade notice issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on Tuesday.

As per the track and trace system, manufacturers or exporters of drug formulations will have to print the barcode as per the global standards at different packaging levels — primary, secondary and tertiary. This would help in facilitating the tracking and tracing of the products.

When cartons are combined for shipping, the aggregated unit is referred to as the parent and the individual cartons inside it are referred to as child and the association of their serial numbers builds a ‘parent-child’ relationship.

The Indian industry had sought more time for implementation of the system because of the Covid-19 outbreak and the associated disruption as well as technical complications faced by the industry, especially the small scale sector.

The use of barcodes has gained significance for the pharmaceutical industry worldwide as by enabling tracking of drugs and tracing their origins they help in distinguishing genuine medicines from spurious, sub-standard or counterfeit drugs.

Published on September 22, 2020