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.

The UAE has officially launched its national drug tracking system under the name of ‘Tatmeen’.

Counterfeit and substandard medicines have existed for as long as medicines have existed. The OECD estimates the global trade in illicit pharmaceuticals to be worth at least $4.4 billion annually.

Pharmaceuticals are among the most heavily counterfeited goods on the planet and, according to the OECD and the EUIPO, are ‘attractive for counterfeiters given the high profit margins, low risks of detection and prosecution, weak penalties, and the ease with which consumers can be deceived into believing that the counterfeit products are genuine.’

Pharmaceuticals remain a real and potentially dangerous target for fraudsters, as these two new tamper-evident and anti-counterfeit developments testify.