Drugs sold in Romania will have special bar code against counterfeit

Drugs will have a special bar code in Romania starting 2017, to prevent counterfeit medicines entering the legal distribution chain, said Marius Tanase, vice-president of the National Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices. The system will be unique in the EU. Each box will have a single code, which will be scanned to check if that box has been sold elsewhere, reports local Economica.net. The costs for printing the code on a box will be low, a few extra euro cents, whereas pharmacies will have to buy code readers, which are between EUR 80-100, Tanase said. He added that only 4 or 5 counterfeit drugs have entered the legal market so far, but that many more are sold on the black market. editor@romania-insider.com