Manufacturer
Issues the identity. Sees where its own stock actually went.
Pack-level medicine intelligence
A strip of medicine should be able to prove what it is.
India already prints a code on 300 regulated drug formulations. DawaDrishti reads that code, checks the pack against the identity its maker issued, and answers while the chemist is still billing it.
Blueprint stage. Recruiting pilot partners across manufacturing, distribution and retail.
The numbers behind the problem
- 1 in 10
- Medical products in low and middle income countries that the World Health Organization estimated to be substandard or falsified. WHO, 2017
- 300
- Drug formulations listed in Schedule H2 that must carry a barcode or QR code on the pack, for batches made on or after 1 August 2023. Drugs (Eighth Amendment) Rules, 2022
- 8
- Fields that code has to store, from the unique product identification code down to the manufacturing licence number.
- Monthly
- How often CDSCO publishes a fresh list of drug samples declared not of standard quality or spurious. CDSCO alerts
01 / The problem
The pack is the only thing everyone touches.
A tablet passes through a factory, a carrying and forwarding agent, a distributor, a wholesaler and a chemist before anyone swallows it. Each keeps its own record. None of them share one.
- Billing and stock are recorded in software. Authenticity is recorded nowhere.
- A recall reaches the trade circular. Finding the affected packs is manual.
- An investigation starts by collecting invoices, e-way bills and photographs by hand.
02 / The idea
One scan, four answers.
The scan has to be quicker than what the counter does today. A check that sits outside the billing workflow gets skipped, so DawaDrishti sits inside it.
- 1
Identify
GTIN, batch, expiry and serial come off the code in one read.
- 2
Verify
The registry answers whether that serial was ever issued, and whether it was already sold.
- 3
Operate
The same scan fills the billing line and moves the stock.
- 4
Record
The scan joins the pack's history, where the next check can use it.
Four fields, one pack
- GTIN
- the product
- Batch
- the production run
- Expiry
- the date it stops being valid
- Serial
- this one box and no other
A DataMatrix is a way of printing those fields. It carries identity. It does not prove authenticity on its own, because a printed code can be printed twice. The registry behind it is what answers.
03 / Who it is for
Five people touch the same pack.
Distributor and C&F
Scans on receipt and on dispatch. Chain of custody falls out of it.
Pharmacy
Scans once at billing. Stock, batch and expiry update from that one action.
Patient
Points a phone at the pack and gets an answer in plain words.
Investigator
Traces a suspect batch and pulls the connected records into one case file.
Every legitimate scan teaches the network what normal looks like.
04 / What the network notices
Four signals do most of the early work.
- The same serial sold twice. One of the two packs is not what it claims to be.
- A pack in a place its history cannot explain. Dispatched to one state, verified in another, with nothing in between.
- A burst of checks on one batch. Unusual verification volume clustered on a single identity.
- System stock and shelf stock drifting apart. The gap is where diversion hides.
These rules only work once real scans exist, which is why the scan has to earn its place in the workflow first.
05 / Sequence
Make the scan useful first.
Intelligence needs data, and data comes from people scanning because it saves them time.
Phase 1
Operational trust
Pack identity, authentication and one-scan billing. Every scan produces something the operator wanted anyway.
Phase 2
Network intelligence
Traceability, risk scoring, investigation and recall reach, built on the events phase one collected.
Phase 3
Transaction intelligence
Invoice verification and reconciliation over the transaction graph, once the network is trusted enough to carry it.
06 / Questions
Questions people ask us.
What is DawaDrishti?
DawaDrishti is a pack-level verification and traceability layer for medicines sold in India. It reads the code already carried on regulated packs, checks the pack's unique serial against the registry of identities the manufacturer issued, and records the scan as an event in that pack's history.
Does a QR code on a pack prove the medicine is genuine?
No. A printed code can be photographed and reprinted onto a counterfeit pack, so the code by itself proves nothing. What separates a genuine pack from a copy is whether its serial was ever issued by the manufacturer, and whether that same serial has already been scanned and sold somewhere else. Both answers live in a backend registry rather than in the printed code.
Which medicines in India have to carry a code?
Under the Drugs (Eighth Amendment) Rules, 2022, the 300 drug formulations listed in Schedule H2 must carry a barcode or QR code on the primary or secondary package. The requirement applies to batches manufactured on or after 1 August 2023.
What does that code store?
Eight fields: a unique product identification code, the proper and generic name of the drug, the brand name, the name and address of the manufacturer, the batch number, the date of manufacture, the date of expiry, and the manufacturing licence number.
How does a busy pharmacy use this without slowing down?
The scan takes the place of typing. One scan at the billing counter fills the product line, captures batch and expiry, moves stock and runs the authenticity check in the same action.
How would a counterfeit pack be detected?
Four signals do most of the early work: a serial that was never issued, a serial sold twice, a pack that turns up somewhere its event history cannot explain, and a burst of verification attempts concentrated on one batch. Each raises a risk score and can open an investigation case.
Is DawaDrishti available today?
Not yet. It is at blueprint stage, and we are recruiting a small number of manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies for a controlled pilot on a limited product set.
07 / Pilot
Run a pilot with us.
Tell us what you make, move or dispense. We come back with a pilot scope for a limited product set, and what it would take to stand up on your side.
