Track & Trace

New types of “edge” technologies promise new options for real-time location insights. Learn how these emerging forms of data capture might supplement traditional AIDC as well as the importance of software platforms, analytics and applications that take advantage of real-time location data.

New legislation requiring pharmaceutical companies to implement 'serialization' is coming into force. This means that no counterfeit product should enter the supply chain and no legitimate product is diverted from its intended destination.

Industry 4.0 is often equated with the idea of the smart factory. Manufacturers, it is said, can use intelligent technologies to automate and optimize the shop floor – thus producing more at lower costs and with less waste.

Perhaps not since the advent of the internet itself has a single technology buzzword captured the imagination of so many. Book publishing is no exception: a growing number of startup companies, people in existing companies, and investors are touting the promise of blockchain technology for publishing. Meanwhile, skeptics say that blockchain cannot possibly live up to all the hype.

In an ideal continuum of care complete with personalized medicine that powers community healthcare performance, the curtains separating the clinical organizations and classes of trade would be transparent, if not non-existent.
In this model, care would be convenient, fueled by process standardization, seamless delivery, secure but open access to information by appropriate parties (clinician and patient) and a fluid demand-driven supply chain with no stockouts or delayed deliveries — from manufacturer through distributor through provider and … wait for it … to the patient’s home.

Whole chain, end-to-end traceability offers ideal safety and transparency - in line with the direction the food industry is fast-tracking towards. The value of seeing the entire past and future of each product is that companies can easily verify the safety practices of their suppliers, the origin and authenticity of the ingredients, as well as be aware of potential allergens.

With Blockchain Technology the pharmaceutical and medical device industries are provided with a unique chance of improving overall compliance and regulators are getting the complete and immutable traceability of products and processes. The pharmaceutical and now as well the medical device industry are heavily regulated, because first of all it is a question of trust in the protection of patients. Where no trust is, one has to proof that everything is cGMP conform. With the new Blockchain technology the status quo can be changed to a point, where regulators can trust and rely upon always available lifecycle data from pharmaceutical and medical device products, production, distribution and logistics. All generated data is accurate, verifiable, secured through encryption, automatically written into the blockchain layer, so all information is always recorded. Blockchain is providing all these abilities regarding compliance and business aspects.

Looking to expand upon their already existing BlackBerry Radar asset monitoring solutions BlackBerry today introduced BlackBerry Radar H2, which collects up to 100x more data than conventional GPS-based track and trace solutions.

ZetesAtlas for Pharma is a serialization and packaging identification solution for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. It’s modular and scalable making it simple and easy to implement. It helps you to be compliant with the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), Unique Device Identification (UDI) regulation and any future serialisation, aggregation and e-pedigree requirements.

In manufacturing industries, there are few things as important as staying compliant with ISO standards and FDA regulations. Notably, the food industry is strictly monitored, and that includes the nutraceutical industry.

Many California marijuana business executives welcome the state’s newly mandated track-and-trace system as an opportunity to ensure industry transparency – but they worry the technology’s rollout could prove rocky.

VOLUM, the blockchain ecosystem for enterprises, is partnering with ISBG, a global producer of alcoholic beverages incubator, to implement its platform into its sales and distribution process. The VOLUM platform digitizes and simplifies both traditional paperwork and the supply chain process with operational smart contracts.

With the mania around Bitcoin and ICO’s having cooled into a “crypto winter”, there’s still a lot of interest in blockchain technology’s applications for real world use cases. Part of the challenge lies in defining where the technology is relevant, and how it can be effectively deployed. A meeting of the New York Supply Chain Meet-up in New York in late January offered up several perspectives that updated views of blockchain as applied to the supply chain.

The world is a global village now and while it has expanded horizons for businesses, it has also added to supply chain complexities. Supply chain management professionals are constantly on the lookout for technology that will help them collaborate efficiently on a global scale.

In the past year the illicit trade in cigarettes has received much attention in the media, with self-interested parties promoting their own narratives. One example is the prominent hashtag campaign #TakeBackTheTax, which claims government loses about R7bn in excise tax revenues every year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking pharmaceutical packaging companies, brand owners and entities engaged at various levels of pharmaceutical distribution to make the prescription-drug supply chain more secure. The mechanism for the work will be a group of pilot projects focusing on drug traceability and verification.

Showcasing the use of UHF RFID technology in the pharma cold chain, CAEN RFID products have successfully provided the temperature monitoring solution for Medlog, a subsidiary of Portuguese pharmaceutical distributor Cooprofar.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has called on HMRC to publish details of the application process for tobacco track and trace codes as soon as possible or risk a backlog of applications and uncertainty about the supply of tobacco to retailers.

We are moving toward a fully digitalized and connected world. The way we work, the way we communicate, the way we interact with our ecosystem…is changing. This is also becoming the reason why companies that were typically analog and ‘offline’ (in terms of connectivity), are now becoming Internet companies. The IoT era will bring many advantages, but also risk and security issues that are inherent to having everything connected.

Blockchain technology provides three key capabilities1 that are missing but required for the life sciences sector to evolve to the next level:

• Ultra-secure and immutable storage of information
• Decentralization and increased transparency of transactions
• Incentivization of key stakeholders