The federal cabinet’s approval of a nationwide track-and-trace system for pharmaceutical products is a timely and important intervention in a sector where weak oversight can cost lives without making headlines. By approving amendments to the Drug Labelling and Packing Rules, the government has cleared the way for standardised 2D barcodes and serialisation data on medicine packs, with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan tasked to supervise the rollout. If implemented, the system can allow regulators to follow a medicine from production to consumption, while patients may be able to verify expiry, price and authenticity before use.
In a country where the underprivileged often buy medicines in strips and where prescriptions are filled at crowded counters, and families routinely borrow for treatment, even a small layer of verification can protect both health and trust. The World Health Organisation estimates that at least one in ten medicines in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. Such products do not merely waste money. They can prolong illness, feed antimicrobial resistance and leave doctors fighting diseases that could have been contained easily.
Pakistan knows this story too well. This year, DRAP has flagged spurious pregnancy-support medicines, while other recent warnings have covered counterfeit or spurious antibiotics, pain medicines and essential therapies. Last May, the regulator warned the public against five counterfeit medicines circulating in the country. To add to the tragedy, the proportion of fake products is said to be far higher in the life-saving category than in the general medicine market.
There is another side to the problem. Shortages and price distortions create room for black-market operators. When unavailable, essential medicines are replaced by spurious and counterfeit alternatives sold at three to five times, and sometimes even ten times, their actual prices.
The cabinet has therefore chosen the right direction. Yet technology cannot be treated as a substitute for enforcement. A barcode can expose a broken chain, but it cannot inspect a warehouse or regulate a wholesaler. DRAP and provincial authorities now need a public batch-alert system in Urdu and English, qualified pharmacists at retail outlets, cold-chain audits and faster prosecution of repeat offenders.+ *