Healthcare product manufacturers have time to address some of the challenges in implementation thanks to the staggered deadlines for Unique Device Identification and a lengthy phase-in period for U.S.-market pharmaceutical item-level serialization. Solutions providers that exhibited at Pack Expo International and Pharma Expo 2014 shared their approaches in handling data and the packages themselves in an effort to provide the tight control needed for dependable line performance.
“We are seeing interest with multiple deployments for multiple lines,” observes Glenn Siegele, president of Omega Design Corp. “Companies are being progressive even though not aggressive, because serialization is not yet a requirement. They are developing an understanding of the infrastructure they need and planning for it, such as putting the printing infrastructure in place now so they don’t have to revisit it again.”
Much of the effort involves equipping lines with sufficient printing and inspection. And “most of pharmaceutical companies identify mass serialization with Data Matrix ECC200 codes (2-D) as the best and easiest method that incorporates the main information to be traced in a much smaller space compared to the standard bar codes,” reports Monica Cervellati, IMA LIFE Marketing Manager (www.ima-pharma.com), which exhibited its approach to serialization at Pharma Expo and Pack Expo. For instance, “the coding solution provides an efficient and cost-effective method to meet the EC’s requirements for pack identification put forth in the recently adopted Falsified Medicines Directive,” Cervellati says. (IMA North America Inc. is based in Leominster, MA; www.ima-na.com.)
Other vendors detailed in this report include:
You can read the feature article at Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News.
