High risk narcotics and psychotropic medicines to be tracked in real-time in Telangana

Telangana is introducing a real-time digital portal to track narcotics, psychotropic substances, vaccines, and anti-cancer drugs. The system, featuring mandatory QR codes, ensures instant reporting, prevents grey market diversion, and empowers consumers to verify the authenticity of critical medications.

Hyderabad: A real-time digital portal to track the flow of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) right from manufacturing hubs to end-point sale is set to be launched in the coming days, enabling Telangana Drug Control Administration (TGDCA) to track high-risk pills and vials through various distribution hubs in Telangana.

The landmark portal will have an end-to-end digital map for all kinds of Narcotics and Psychotropic drugs, which are the highly regulated, life-saving medications with high potential for abuse.

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The proposal was recently given green signal by the Drugs Consultative Committee’s (DCC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (CDSCO), the top regulatory body of pharmaceutical drugs in the country.

The real time portal is also set to become highly visible to the general public at the point of sale in medical shops of Hyderabad. Consumers and pharmacists in Hyderabad will soon see mandatory Quick Response (QR) codes on all narcotic and psychotropic drugs, as well as vaccines, antimicrobials, and anti-cancer medications.

For local medical shops and distributors in Hyderabad, the portal will make sure that there is no delayed reporting. The system will provide the TGDCA instant access to inventory data, making it nearly impossible to divert legal stocks into the grey market.

Local chemists will eventually be required to sync their daily sales data with the national portal. Although this increases the compliance burden on small business owners, the benefit is a leak-proof ecosystem that ensures life-saving drugs are reserved for legitimate patients rather than being diverted for substance abuse.

For years, the monitoring of such high-end drugs ranging from heavy painkillers to sedatives (which need prescription) was based on periodic physical inspections and handwritten ledgers.

The new portal, however, will now mandate that every critical step including manufacture, import, sale, and current stock levels be updated in a centralized system in real-time.

The track-and-trace mechanism of the new portal is specifically aimed at eliminating the counterfeit medications that have occasionally surfaced in local markets, offering patients a digital guarantee of authenticity.

Medical shop owners and hospital administrators in Telangana are already being advised to begin auditing their digital infrastructure immediately to ensure they can meet the upcoming real-time reporting requirements. The idea is to ensure that the most sensitive medications in the healthcare system are accounted for from the factory floor to the patient’s bedside, officials said.

• High risk narcotics and psychotropic drugs in Telangana to be tracked in real-time
• Physical inspections and handwritten registers to be replaced by electronic systems
• Mandatory QR codes on all narcotics, psychotropics, vaccines, and anti-cancer drugs
• No delays in reporting and updating the sale and slow of such drugs
• System to curb grey market sale of such high-end group of drugs
• Empowers customers to verify their critical and expensive drugs are genuine