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DPT, Med-Health Pharma shed light on authentication
solutions
A pervasive air of secrecy makes trends in
brand protection tough to track. But the following two pharmaceutical-based
authentication efforts by DPT Laboratories and Med-Health Pharma
shed light on some of the solutions being explored to combat counterfeiters,
diverters, and gray marketers who appear to be broadening their
horizons. (Alan Green, logistics director for DPT Laboratories,
will discuss how the contract developer, manufacturer, and packager
is implementing brand-protection strategies at the Brand-Protection
Packaging Forum May 5, 2009 in Chicago.)
By Pat Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World
Pharmaceutical manufacturers have a real brand-protection battle
on their hands, as the World Health Organization estimates that
counterfeit drug sales could reach $75 billion by 2010. For contract
packagers, implementing a successful anti-counterfeiting strategy
is especially challenging, says DPT's Green. The company serves
as a contract developer of molecules as well as a contract manufacturer
and packager that handles creams, liquids, gels, and powders.
“As contract manufacturers, we have to be all things to all
people,” says Green. “And our customers are all over
the map when it comes to what they think they need in the way of
anti-counterfeiting measures. To further complicate things, we have
a marketing arm with their own-brand product called Healthpoint.
At the end of the day, we face a lot of opinions about what’s
best and what isn’t. We have to listen to all of them.”
DPT is in the final stages of developing and implementing what
might be called a pay-as-you-go plan. A 2D datamatrix bar-code track-and-trace
system that goes right down to the smallest saleable unit will be
the standard offering. On cases and pallets, the standard offering
might be an RFID tag, so that when those cases and pallets come
to a major distributor or wholesaler’s warehouse, they can
be easily checked. But if a customer wants to go beyond the standard
offering—suppose, for example, they want both a bar code and
an RFID tag on individual units—DPT is looking at a menu of
options that can be selected and paid for accordingly.
Green says the plan is to focus on prescription drugs first, though
DPT also handles over-the-counter items. Partnering with DPT on
the supplier side will be Blue
Vector and either SupplyScape
or Axway. DPT hasn’t gone
commercial yet with its e-Pedigree implementation. But here’s
an illustration of how it might play out if tubed products, for
example, are in production.
Each tube is assigned a unique serial number by either DPT or the
contract customer. This number is carried in an RFID tag or 2D bar
code on a pressure-sensitive label on the tube. Onto the corrugated
case into which 12 tubes are to be inserted, an operator applies
an RFID tag; again, it’s carried on a p-s label. As tubes
move onto an accumulation table, a Blue Vector scanning device reads
the 2D bar code or RFID tag on the tube and another Blue Vector
scanning device reads the RFID tag on the case. So as the tubes
are manually loaded into the case, Blue Vector software associates
the 12 unique tube numbers with the tag on the case.
Later at DPT, the cases are put on a pallet and a Blue Vector reader
associates the cases with a linear bar code or RFID tag that goes
on the pallet. Finally, pallets are aggregated into an order. So
a complete child/parent relationship linking tubes with cases with
pallets with an order has been established.
While Blue Vector’s contribution is on the capture of the
unique serialization numbers, SupplyScape’s or Axway’s
e-Pedigree data management software is responsible for managing
the chain of custody as the uniquely serialized product makes its
way through the supply chain. Every time product changes hands—from
drug manufacturer to DPT to Wholesaler 1 to Wholesaler 2 to Distributor—the
unique identification numbers are sent into DPT’s Enterprise
Resource Planning System (ERP). When the e-Pedigree is built, the
unique IDs are extracted out of ERP—along with all the other
information that’s required, such as manufacturer’s
name, lot code, expiration date, invoice number, etc.—and
electronically sent to the next trading partner in the chain.
“On the packaging line and at the distribution center, Blue
Vector’s technology is the vehicle by which we capture and
authenticate the serialized numbers that go out the door,”
says Green. “Their software rolls that data up into our business
system and ultimately into our ERP, and that’s where the e-Pedigree
provider takes over. They take the pedigree information and collect
the serialized number and keep that database and send that pedigree
to the next owner of the item.
“The way we look at it, an anti-counterfeiting solution is
going to be a requirement in the very near future. Like putting
a cap on a bottle, it’s simply something that’s done,”
he says. ...Read More
Film guide improves medical kit packaging
An air displacement web guide on a horizontal form/fill/seal machine keeps film aligned, reducing film scrap and rework.
By Kassandra Kania, Contributing Editor
Cardinal Health’s Mannford, OK facility needed guidance to
get its medical procedural kit packaging back on track—literally.
The film used to seal preformed trays of medical instruments often
shifted out of alignment with the company’s horizontal form/fill/seal
machine, resulting in wasted product and time spent rethreading
the film.
“It happened almost daily,” says Vance Cook, Cardinal
Health’s maintenance and facilities manager. “The lower
web would run out of the gripper chains, and it would take a dozen
or more cycles to get it back in the chains.” Cook attributes
the problem to a combination of uneven film rolls, the machine’s
design, and the company’s packaging process. “We have
long runs of plastic between rollers that tend to make it easy to
ride to one side or the other,” he explains.
Cook approached the form/fill/seal equipment’s manufacturer
first for assistance. “They didn’t have a solution as
far as adjustments we could make to the machine,” he says,
“but they knew a couple of companies that make web guides.”
Cook chose Coast Controls’
model RDG5 all-air displacement web guide and installed it after
the machine’s registration roller and before the transport
chains to ensure proper seal alignment of the film to the plastic
trays. He was pleased with the guide’s simplicity: “Installation
was easy—no electronic wiring or controls were needed,”
he says. “I just added our plant air, and we were in operation.”
The guide has a roller with a sensor that senses when the film
starts to shift to one side or the other, explains Cook. “The
roller is on a swivel that compensates for the shift in film to
keep it aligned between two points,” he says.
The web guide has reduced the problem of displaced film by about
98%, estimates Cook. “Benefits have been less scrap and less
rework,” he says. Cardinal now produces between 10,000 and
12,000 packages daily and has eliminated the need for manual supervision
and film adjustment.
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