Pakistan, June 3 -- 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 presc...