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Novartis Subsidiary Salutas Pharma Completing Serialization Project

Salutas Pharma GmbH and its Polish affiliate LEK S.A. have upgraded 47 production lines within a year as part of its effort to implement and adhere to the European Union Falsified Medicines Directive.

Prescription medicines in the European Union must be marked with a unique identification number as of February 2019. A tamper-evident form of closure is also required to prevent manipulation.

Salutas Pharma and LEK, both subsidiaries of Sandoz companies belonging to the Novartis Group, addressed these challenges together with Uhlmann Pac-Systeme GmbH & Co. KG. The pharmaceutical packaging supplier fitted all 47 Sandoz packaging lines with serialization units in one of the largest projects in the company’s history—and did so within a tight time schedule.

Salutas sites in Barleben and Osterweddingen are recognized as modern, efficient pharmaceutical facilities in Europe. “Around eight billion tablets and capsules leave our Barleben plant alone in a year,” says Kay Reinhardt, Salutas Pharma Team Leader Engineering Projects. Many of these are marketed within the EU. In all, 26 packaging lines overall were modified at the two locations.

Meanwhile, Polish affiliate LEK upgraded on a similar scale. The generic pharmaceutical product manufacturer required a tight timeline to minimize downtime and avoid supply shortages.

When it came to selecting a supplier, innovative technology, broad expertise, and, not least, the size of Uhlmann proved to be convincing factors for the pharmaceutical manufacturer. The supplier’s ability to execute a project of this magnitude was an essential criterion for Salutas.

“As we have been working with Uhlmann since the 1990s, we are familiar with the company’s project management and were certain that we would receive the necessary support,” notes Reinhardt, explaining the decision in favor of the international systems supplier of pharmaceutical packaging.

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