Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - April 2008 - (Page 16) 16 Technology: Supply Chain April 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe Look After Your eHealth Adopting collaborative eHealth measures is the key to a safer and more efficient supply chain, says Kim Loughead. Figure 1: Value proposition for track & trace with serialisation. Patient safety High Medical error prevenion Compliance monitoring Safe & equal access Value Safe Importation & parallel trade Counterfeit prevention Funds protection & reimbursement fraud prevention Reduce drug spoilage & waste Product quality monitoring & assurance Supply chain efficiency Protection Regulatory compliance Product tracking & emergency management Product authentication Forensic product tracing EMR/EHR integration Low Targeted product recalls Smaller Eco system Larger he EUs’s open market policy for member states ensures access and availability of pharmaceuticals but exposes them to counterfeit products. Counterfeits make up about 1% of US pharmaceuticals sales and about 10% of European sales. As a result, European governments are passing track and trace legislation to combat counterfeits and reimbursement fraud. Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy have already enacted laws, while Turkey and France passed legislation to be enacted in early 2009 and late 2010, respectively. These new laws mark a new trend. They both require the manufacturer to add a unique identification number to the unit packaging using a 2D data matrix barcode. Previously, 2D data matrix barcodes were supplied by the government at an estimated cost in excess of €400 million. Some global pharmaceutical manufacturers, such as AstraZeneca (AZ), are taking additional steps to combat the counterfeits that put their customers and brand at risk. All of this activity is resulting in a convergence of efforts with some common themes: • unique identification unit dose package (serialisation) • 2D data matrix barcodes as data carrier • use of GS1 Healthcare • exchange of serialised product data through the eco-system. Government and industry coalitions, such as the European T Seth Joel/Getty Images
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