The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7244 p500
12 April 2003

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e.centre (www.e-centre.org.uk)
PharmEDI (www.pharm-edi.com)
FDA news (more)

UK backing for American call to make greater use of bar codes on packaging

Organisations in the United Kingdom are backing a call by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the greater use of bar codes on pharmaceutical packaging.

Last month, the FDA proposed that all prescription medicines and some non-prescription medicines, vaccines and blood products should carry bar codes on their packaging. The FDA wants the bar codes to use the EAN.UCC (European Article Number.Uniform Code Council) system and carry, as a minimum, the product's US national drug number which identifies its strength and dosage form. The FDA is also asking whether additional information such as batch numbers and expiry dates should be included within the bar code.

The FDA says that the use of bar codes on medicines, together with bar codes on patient identification bracelets and computerised medical records, would allow health care professionals to check the appropriateness of all medicines before they are administered to the patient.

Kevan Wind, National Health Service London and Eastern drug procurement specialist pharmacist, told The Journal that with a rise in automated dispensing and increasing use of patient packs in hospital and community pharmacy, greater use of bar codes would bring benefits in terms of patient safety and supply chain management.

He said that at present around 80 per cent of pharmaceutical products carry a bar code. Products from smaller manufacturers may lack a bar code and parallel imports may carry one that is not in the UK format.

Mr Wind is a member of the committee of PharmEDI, a group for parties interested in the use of information technology in the pharmaceutical supply chain. PharmEDI is keen to see greater use of bar codes to improve transparency — "so that we are all talking about the same thing" — and wants to see the National Health Service Information Authority and the Purchasing and Supply Authority take a lead.

In terms of adding batch specific information, Mr Wind pointed out that this would result in additional costs for manufacturers. Bar codes would have to be printed on individual packs rather than printed on mass on packaging designed to hold many different batches of a product.

The FDA's proposals are also being supported by e.centre, the UK authority for the EAN.UCC system. Steve Coussins, e.centre's chief executive, said there is limited use of the codes in pharmacies and that it will be campaigning "to ensure that this important ruling by the FDA will pave the way to improved patient safety in the UK".