While pharmaceutical packaging safeguards, such as barcodes, QR codes, and serialization, are now standard requirements under regulations like the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) and US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), these measures have proven ineffective in preventing counterfeiting, if used alone.

India has recently rolled back key measures for pharmaceutical traceability – possibly due to the increasingly widespread copying of genuine QR codes onto counterfeit drugs.

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 2025 report, ‘Country Experiences on Implementation of Traceability for Medical Products’, highlights the uneven progress in global traceability efforts for medicines and vaccines. Drawing on survey responses from WHO member states, the report cites insufficient technological knowledge and capabilities as the biggest barriers to implementing traceability systems.

In April 2024, China’s National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) launched a pilot programme to implement a ‘unique electronic ID’ code on drugs and medical consumables, enabling comprehensive traceability across the supply chain.

Continuing our series of articles on the strategic perspectives of leading brands in their fight against counterfeit and adulterated products, this month we feature Chugai Pharmaceutical, one of Japan’s top five pharma companies, and a member of Swiss healthcare multinational Roche.

Recent investigations have revealed a concerning trend of counterfeit medicines infiltrating India’s pharmaceutical supply chain and hospitals. Incidents across various regions have highlighted the pervasive issue of spurious drugs circulating widely, from the national capital, New Delhi, to major cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, and rural areas.

A new trend among counterfeiters is to target high-value drugs like HIV antivirals in both the developing and developed world. This problem was highlighted in 2020 and 2021, when Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Gilead warned that counterfeits of several HIV medications had been discovered circulating in the US.

Gilead Science’s comprehensive measures to ensure medicine safety, from tablet design to vials and packaging.

Now that the Indian government has introduced mandatory QR codes on drugs, the country’s pharmaceutical companies are moving forward with implementing these codes.

India’s pharmaceutical industry is vital to global healthcare as it is the largest supplier of low-cost generics, vaccines, and affordable HIV medicines, as well as the third largest supplier in terms of volume, and 14th in terms of value.