The Pharmaceutical Track and Trace System, which was created in order to prevent fraud in pharmaceuticals, maintain patient security and monitor pharmaceuticals at every stage, has been implemented in our country in this scope for the first time in the world. In this system all pharmaceuticals that are produced in our country are defined with a two dimensional barcode system which contains a variety of information. The barcode is the finger print of pharmaceuticals. The barcode number, serial number, expiration date and party number are included in the barcode.
According to the Human Medicine Product Packaging and Labeling Regulation which is in force, within the first stage of the Pharmaceuticals Monitoring System which includes pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies, as of January 1, 2010 all license holders are required to place a barcode on all products that they have produced, and pharmaceuticals which were produced and released into the market without barcodes before this date were allowed to be sold until July 1, 2010.
Pursuant to the same regulation, in the scope of the second phase of the Pharmaceuticals Track and Trace System which includes pharmaceutical wholesalers the requirement that all transport packages must have identification identifying the package being transported or the barcode information of the products in the transport package to be valid as of January 1, 2012 and to be actively practiced as of March 2012.
The monitoring of pharmaceuticals throughout the supply chain has also brought with it significant changes in the pharmaceuticals logistics system and work is still being done towards solving problems that emerge in the application of the second stage like the return of pharmaceuticals.