Track & Trace

Pharmaceutical vendors are being placed under increasingly stringent requirements to ensure that the products they ship can be accurately traced from the manufacturer to the customer. To do so, each carton is printed with information such as serial number, lot number, expiration date and manufacturing date before it is finally packed in individual cartons.

Like a scene out of a Bond movie or Minority Report, this glue – and other fluids mixed with paint or applied to surfaces – acts as a tiny gel screen that can be scanned to retrieve the product’s information and history to prove its authenticity.

PCI has invested in serialization technology capacity expansions for its facilities across North America and Europe to meet customer demand in advance of pending requirements in both regions, as well as requirements in emerging markets around the world. PCI’s FlexLine is a standalone serialization service that compliments integrated serialization technologies that the company offers.

Today many medical device manufacturers are turning to polymer components in order to drive down costs and improve product safety. In-line serialization helps to ensure part safety by improving traceability and aiding compliance to the Food and Drug Administration’s unique device identification (UDI) regulations. As an ISO 13485:2012 certified manufacturer, Empire complies with all FDA identification and traceability standards, and this new marking option will reduce cost and add design flexibility for customers.

Serialized codes can help prevent illicit medicines reaching patients, but their limitations should not be ignored.

Perhaps this is your first week of starting a laser engraving business or that you have been using your laser quite proficiently for some time and today you tried to give a shot to a glass object, be it a custom order for a beer glass or a decoration ornament. If you are a small business owner glass marking can open a lot of new business opportunities and potentially amplify your business revenues, if you end up mastering the art of marking on such a delicate material.

In response to the threat of counterfeit drugs, pharmaceutical packaging companies have implemented track and trace serialisation protocols in order to ensure that pharmaceuticals are safe and legitimate.

TraceLink Inc., the world's largest track and trace network for connecting the Life Sciences supply chain and eliminating counterfeit prescription drugs from the global marketplace, today announced that the Life Sciences Cloud is the only track and trace platform used by pharmaceutical companies in global markets that comprise 75 percent of the world's drug supply, valued at an estimated $736 billion. With commercially available solutions for the Unites States, the European Union, Brazil, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, and a supply chain network with nearly 200,000 members, TraceLink is now enabling pharmaceutical companies to meet compliance requirements in more global regions than any other track and trace provider.

A new report titled, "Global Opportunity Analysis and Forecast for Anti-Counterfeit Clothing and Accessories Packaging Market, 2014 -2020 Market", forecasts the global anti-counterfeit clothing and accessories packaging market to grow at a CAGR of 9.9% during 2015-2020. Track and trace technology would be the fastest growing segment registering a CAGR of 11.5% from 2015 to 2020. Barcode segment led the global track and trace technology market with about 74% market share in 2014.

Shipping procedures are a major consideration during a customer’s buying journey. To effectively manage delivery, companies must utilize track and trace features, available on a TMS. To provide consistent delivery performance at a low cost, a transportation management system can help you explore the best lanes and provide end-to-end visibility. Plus, a TMS can reduce transportation costs by 30%. Using the track and trace feature of a TMS is especially valuable because it offers real-time, tangible information to the customer and shipper.

In an effort to counteract the counterfeit industry, the OPC Foundation has formed a working group addressing compliance to healthcare counterfeiting regulations. The Open Serialization Communication Standard Working Group (Open-SCS) is developing an industrial interoperability standard and the associated requirements templates, which are expected to be released by the end of 2015.