Enhanced serialization and improved supply chain management are rapidly gaining importance across all retail sectors. However, for the pharmaceutical industry, ensuring good traceability holds an even greater significance. This is because the need for improved drugs and better healthcare services is now more dominant than ever. While this benefits the licensed manufacturers, it also opens a market for illegal production and sale of drugs.

To combat this issue of counterfeit drugs, European Union published a directive to make traceability obligatory for pharmaceutical products which came into effect in 2015. Canadian Technical Barcode Committee also aims to mandate serialization for all medicinal products by 2017. This makes adopting efficient traceability practises crucial for pharmaceutical companies to continue their operations within the country as well as globally.

Here’s a closer look at the role of traceability in the pharmaceutical industry:

What is Traceability?

As the name suggests, traceability is the ability to trace a product, in this case drugs and medications, through its entire process of production and logistical management. This entails being able to track the progress of a product from development through packaging, right from the seed to the sale.

Traceability works at all the different levels of production and lets you track your product till it reaches the aisle and even beyond. The different levels at which you can trace your products are:

Receiving the raw materials

Scanning the product as it is entered and distributed across different warehouses

Tracking it during the QC inspection

Supplying it to the wholesaler

Tracking the product as it reaches different outlets including retail stores, E-commerce websites or hospital supplies in the case of pharmaceuticals

Shipment and Return process.

Traceability allows you to track your product in real time and benefits your business commercially.

Importance of Traceability for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Although traceability is widely practiced across most manufacturing sectors including the food and the electronic industries, it holds special significance for the pharmaceutical segment. As the market for innovative drugs expands, malpractices such as sale of counterfeit drugs, illegal sale of tightly controlled substances such as cannabis and narcotics also grow.

The role of traceability in the pharmaceutical industry especially in regards to the sale of cannabis and other controlled drugs can be summed as:

Prevents the reach of illegal drugs to the market and the reach of controlled drugs to the black market

Optimizes inventory and expiry management

Makes the process of recall easier

Provides detailed monitoring

Prevents the reach of drugs to users which they are not intended for

Best Traceability Practices

Best tracking practices can be implemented for your business with the use of a combination of technologies. Most effective tools to track your products through the entire supply chain include:

RFID Tracking – Radio-Frequency Identification Tracking uses radio waves to code information on tags and is a very reliable tool for tracking your products. It is frequently used in/on airline baggage tags.

Barcode Technology – This is one of the most commonly used tools for improving traceability.

Jet Marking Solutions provides you a complete set of these top of the line devices making the process of traceability easier and more efficient for your business. From thermal barcode printers to RFID scanning systems, we provide a broad combination of services which enables you to track your products right from your office. Contact our experts to learn more.

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