Purdue Pharma adopts item-level tagging

-- Packaging Digest, 4/1/2007

Pharmaceutical products manufacturer, developer and researcher Purdue Pharma L.P., Stamford, CT, reports that it will integrate Gen 2 radio-frequency identification products into its high-speed pharmaceutical packaging lines to improve pharmaceutical supply-chain efficiency and security.

RFID chip and reader supplier Impinj, Inc. (www.impinj.com) made the announcement in February that Purdue Pharma's Gen 2 RFID-enabled line would be scheduled for production-level deployment in the second quarter of 2007. The line will reportedly incorporate the GrandPrix(TM) UHF RFID solution from Impinj, comprising Speedway(TM) readers and tags powered by Monza(TM) chips and application-specific near-field reader antennas. The line will reportedly be certified for production readiness via SYSTECH Intl.'s (www.systech-tips.com) TIPS(R) serialized product-tracking system, which includes exhaustive tests modeling Purdue Pharma production packaging environments. "We're working to implement innovative solutions that will enhance security in the supply chain," says Aaron Graham, vp of corporate security and chief security officer at Purdue Pharma.

"This technology was selected as an integral part of our packaging line improvements to help establish an ePedigree process that will significantly improve the delivery of our products to the pharmacy counter." he adds.

The Speedway reader boasts read rates with throughput exceeding 1,000 tags/sec in typical supply-chain environments and 200 tags/sec in dense-reader environments with up to eight interfering readers. It also features a monostatic antenna design said to deliver the highest performance while substantially reducing deployment ownership costs. The chips and readers carry EPCglobal's Gen 2 Conformance Certification and Interoperability Certification marks, according to Impinj.