Track & Trace

L’application identiDOTS développée par Inoocq permet aux utilisateurs de valider l’authenticité de leurs produits par la détection des marqueurs bioDOTS uniques, et invisibles à l’œil nu. Ces marqueurs bio-compatibles et dispersibles peuvent être intégrés directement dans vos produits ainsi que dans leurs emballages primaires et secondaires.

German pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Bayer has announced that it is adding a QR code to the packaging of its over-the-counter (OTC) products in the United Kingdom to improve accessibility for patients who are blind or partially sighted.

The temperature-controlled container specialist said amongst the new offering is a ‘click and collect’ service for pharmaceutical companies, airlines and 3PLs who rent the containers as well as the option to purchase – and customise – the KTEvolution for businesses preferring to integrate the container in their circular supply chain and in their stock to increase their customer a fully reusable solutions when shipping smaller batches of sensitive pharmaceutical or biotech products, including cell and gene therapies.

The code is designed to make packaging more accessible to people who are blind or partially sighted. These codes, created by Zappar working with Bayer and in collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), can be detected by accessibility apps such as the Envision app, Microsoft SeeingAI and also Zapvision’s reference app.

A leading producer of juice and beverages, Gulf Union Foods Co, has partnered with creative technology studio and AIPIA member Appetite Creative to create a fun and interactive connected packaging experience for its Original juice brand; to give young people a boost at the start of the school year with its fruit juice carton packs, it says.

While printed electronics can be added to packaging to increase functionality through IoT monitoring and asset tracking, and to create new user experiences for the next generation of technology-savvy consumers, it can make recycling of the packaging material more complex or even impossible.

One of Domino’s key strategic aims will be to provide customers with closed-loop solutions that manage the product coding, and help to minimise errors, waste, and downtime: “This includes data management and deployment from our coding automation solutions, machine monitoring with Domino Cloud, and code verification from our vision offering. These can be provided as part of an integrated solution to ensure the customer that products are of high quality and minimise production downtime.”

In the third phase of the HolyGrail 2.0 initiative, Aldi Nord and the Aldi South Group are implementing watermark technology into their packaging; this is hoped to improve sorting in waste facilities and optimise recycling in pursuit of circularity.

They argue that recycling alone cannot adequately reduce Europe’s material and carbon footprints to achieve its climate and environmental goals. In the same vein, swapping one single-use material for another is not expected to achieve circularity. Reuse before recycling is foregrounded as an optimal solution, but this comes with a requirement to establish an ‘ambitious, globally differentiated and diversified’ green industrial strategy in Europe due to limited natural resources.

How does Danone – the owner of leading brands like Evian, Volvic, Actimel, and Activa – approach packaging sustainability? We caught up with Irène de la Torre, the company’s Global Packaging Circular Economy Director, to learn more.

Selecting the appropriate materials for pharmaceutical packaging is a critical decision for pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers. The right choice ensures that medicines remain safe, effective, and stable throughout their shelf life. From compliance with regulatory standards to ensuring product integrity, every aspect plays a crucial role.

McKinsey believes that “skinny design”—using less materials in packaging, choosing different materials, or rethinking the package shape—is a rare case of a win-win-win practice with benefits for business, the environment, and the consumer. In this article, three experts from McKinsey – partners Dave Fedewa and Benedict Sheppard, and design director Lea Kobeli – tell us more.

Regulations emerge and shift with continuous innovation in the pharmaceutical space, and the creation of new regulations stemming from technological innovation is no different. As regulatory standards, structure and the searchability of regulatory filings and submissions continue to improve through ongoing initiatives, health authorities like the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada have incorporated new protocols to guide companies in the transition.

Several exciting innovations have begun to gain the attention of companies within the pharmaceutical sector. Artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and automation all have the potential to streamline the pharmaceutical packaging process and optimize traceability of finished units.

The report reveals that Apple has been engraving microscopic QR codes on the glass cover of the iPhone at various stages of manufacturing. These codes, which are as small as a grain of sand, help Apple monitor and reduce the defects in its supply chain. The codes can only be read by special laser and scanning equipment that Apple has installed at its Chinese suppliers' factories.

At checkout-free stores, products are displayed within the line of sight of a computer vision system. Using cameras, shelf sensors, sensor fusion, and such AI technologies as computer vision and generative AI, Just Walk Out enables customers to purchase their desired product without having to queue to pay.

With its high-quality production plants for the confectionery industry, Winkler und Dünnebier (WDS) has become one of the world's most sought-after mechanical engineering companies in this sector. Besides tradition and quality, it owes its success to constant innovation. Today the company can offer its customers maximum plant efficiency, safety and control, thanks to optimum mold logistics. Here data defining the latest status of every mold is supplied by Turck's RFID BL ident system.

Le Groupe MMS (regroupant les entreprises JRI et CIET Pharma), spécialiste des solutions sans fils de traçabilité et de surveillance de la température et autres paramètres physiques pour l’industrie pharmaceutique, les opérateurs de la santé et l’agroalimentaire, réorganise son capital pour accélérer ses développements technologiques, et consolider sa position parmi les leaders internationaux de la digitalisation des process qualité.

It's go time. On November 27 of this year, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) interoperability requirements take effect. Distributors must sell and accept products with a product identifier that both machines and humans can read, paired with electronic transaction information. This requires manufacturers, wholesale drug distributors, repackagers, and dispensers to exchange transaction data, including unit-level serial numbers, in a secure, interoperable, electronic manner.

With an estimated 50% of pharma and medical product recalls caused by labelling errors, it’s evident that some businesses need to review their label creation methods to ensure accuracy and avoid falling foul of the regulator.

The smart packaging campaign, featuring Schweppes International’s exotic fruit drinks brand Banga, utilises a web app-based connected experience accessed via QR codes. Users can play an entertaining fall game where they are encouraged to slice fruit to create fruit juice. Every time users participate a small donation is made to a local children’s charity guaranteeing support for those who need it.

The track and Trace system is a serialization method that gives every packaged product a unique identifier. The process is automated from the initial phase to the last, i.e., from ID generation to final product printing. The serialization data is linked to a centralized database that contains details of the unique identifier and can be used to check the authenticity. The unique identifier can track the product at different stages until it reaches its end user. It can be traced back to mine details such as raw material, manufacturing process, quality test, etc.

OMRON Automation enables manufacturers to address multiple requirements. Our barcode, machine vision, and verification products boost manufacturing efficiency and quality control to a whole new level. We help our customers cut costs, monitor quality, and increase production flow with easy-to-implement solutions.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) identified 51 medicine batches as "not meeting the standard quality" criteria in July. This included well-known medications such as Rosuvastatin from Sun Pharma Laboratories and a drug combination of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride and Dutasteride tablets produced by Cipla.