New labelling rules to help patients select pills wisely

Ever squinted at a medicine strip trying to find the expiry date, or popped a pill without knowing whether it's branded or generic? You're not alone.

- Priyanka Sharma

India's top drug regulator is stepping in to change that. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is working on a nationwide overhaul of medicine packaging and labelling norms.

The goal is to make expiry dates and batch numbers easier to read, reduce confusion between generic and branded drugs, and help patients make better-informed choices, two government officials aware of the matter said.

As part of the proposed changes, manufacturers may soon be required to use larger fonts, ditch shiny packaging that reflects light and obscures print, and print expiry dates in more than one place to prevent vital information from being torn off.

There's also a plan to introduce a universal symbol to clearly distinguish generic medicines from branded ones.

The regulator had received several complaints regarding the difficulty in differentiating between cheaper generic drugs and their branded counterparts, and consequently, the pricing comparison.

"The drug regulator has received various complaints and demands from the consumers regarding the labelling of medicinal products such as tiny font size of the letters printed on the drug packaging, shiny labels, the expiry date of the medicines getting torn while taking out the medicine, and demand for a universally recognized symbol on the generic medicines that will distinguish it from the branded medicines," said one of the officials cited above, requesting anonymity.