The pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated, with many layers of compliance to prevent product tampering and, ultimately, save on costs. However, companies can only truly reap these rewards if they carefully select serialisation partners and solutions.
As the EU Intellectual Property Office reported in a previous study, fake medicines cost the EU pharma industry more than €10 billion in lost revenue and nearly 38,000 lost jobs every year. The EU FMD-mandated measures, which include a unique identifier code and tamper-evident packaging for pharma products, protect supply chains and help cut down on these losses.
While no definitive findings on the human toll of falsified drugs exist, they are believed to be responsible for 100,000 to 1,000,000 deaths every year, worldwide. Although compliance is undeniably important, it should not be the only factor driving pharma companies’ serialisation decisions and actions.
BENEFITS BEYOND COMPLIANCE
As more firms integrate Internet of Things technologies into their production and business processes, serialisation presents an opportunity to collect data to create smarter, more efficient supply chains.
Pharma manufacturers are realising that they can get a return on their compliance investment by capturing serialisation data and using it to attain valuable insights that enhance business operations. Because of this, companies and their partners should be mindful when evaluating and implementing serialisation software to boost visibility, productivity and business optimisation.
LEVERAGING DATA BEYOND COMPLIANCE WILL ALSO ASSIST WITH:
- Traceability compliance
- Manufacturing improvements
- Responsible sourcing
- Chargeback and return processes
- Recall processes
- Pharmacovigilance data capture
- Personalized medicine
- Education on drug usage and disposal
- Brand protection
- Inventory reduction
- Production efficiency
INTO THE FUTURE
Pharmaceutical companies that embrace a beyond-compliance approach and leverage their data could benefit from the following
- An increased capacity for more secure testing and reporting process
- Reduced risk of data mix-ups
- A reduction in the number of dispensing errors
- Products only being distributed to the geographical location where they will be used
- Reduced waste and unit-level recalls instead of full batches
Related Solutions
Enterprise-Level Cloud (L4)
Optchain Verify is an essential tool to comply with most of the world’s pharmaceutical regulations
Optchain Solution
OPTEL’s Intelligent Supply Chain is a powerful traceability platform that digitizes supply chains from end to end.
Track-and-trace
Gain supply chain visibility and assured traceability with audits and certifications