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Article: US FDA Final Rule on Rx bar codes.(Food and Drug Administration)
- Article from:
- Pharma Marketletter
- Article date:
- March 8, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Marketletter Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The US Food and Drug Administration is issuing a Final Rule requiring bar codes on the labels of thousands of human-use drugs and biological products. This will help avoid preventable medication errors and reduce health care costs, it says, adding that it is a major step forward in efforts to harness information technology to promote higher-quality care.
The Rule calls for the inclusion of linear bar codes on most prescription drugs and certain over-the-counter drugs that are commonly used in hospitals and dispensed pursuant to an order. Each bar code must contain, at a minimum, the drug's National Drug Code number, which will be encoded within the bar code on ...