Turkey’s 2D barcode system crashes day after launch

A 2D barcode system introduced to track drugs in Turkey crashed the day after it came online, according to Today’s Zaman.

Turkey adopted 2D barcodes to track drugs from production to consumption, helping prevent duplicated sales and counterfeits, it crashed on Monday, the day after it was launched.

The crash occurred after 24,000 pharmacies tried to access the system on Monday. Furthermore, some companies failed to submit drugs to the Health Ministry and consequently the system was unable to recognise all products.

A statement from the Turkish Pharmacists’ Union (TEB) acknowledged the problems.In the statement TEB stressed that pharmacists are not responsible for the failure.