New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS): The Central government has made QR codes mandatory on drug manufacturing ingredients packages and the new rule will be applicable from January 1, 2023.

It has been made mandatory to put QR codes on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients used in medicines which is expected to help in distinguishing between genuine and counterfeit drugs much easier.

"Every active pharmaceutical ingredient manufactured or imported in India shall bear a quick response code on its label at each level, packaging that store data or information readable with software application to facilitate tracking," said Union Health Ministry in a gazette notified guidelines.

The initiative aims to trace pharmaceutical firms and to gather information like whether there has been any tampering with the formula, where is the origin of the raw material, and where is the product going. The data stored in the code is expected to have unique product ID, name of the API, brand name, name and address of the manufacturer among other important information.