Packaging, Labeling, and Distribution Systems

The US Food and Drug Administration?s Counterfeit Drug Task Force (Rockville, MD, www.fda.gov) is recommending regulatory actions and the implementation of new technologies for reducing the risk of counterfeit drugs entering the United States. The group has followed up on its original 2004 report, in which it outlined the framework for protecting the public from counterfeit medicines, and an updated 2005 report with a third document encouraging electronic pedigrees, improved traceability in the drug supply chain, and the adoption of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tools.

I always suspected that our purchasing manager had agreed to this just to save money . . .

Interphex provided an opportunity to examine the latest pharmaceutical packaging concepts and packaging machines.

Bringing Exubera to market requires extensive collaboration by Pfizer, Nektar Therapeutics, West Pharmaceutical Services Tech Group, and Bespak.

This article looks at the different types of marking and coding techniques used in the pharmaceutical supply chain and their role in helping to prevent counterfeiting.

The need to curb drug counterfeiting is spurring development of track-and-trace and product authentication technologies.

Despite worries that industry is slow to adopt anticounterfeiting technologies, the 2006 Interphex program is rife with new methods for securing the supply chain.

The right choice [of coding and marking technology] depends upon the company's top priorities regarding legibility, cost, speed, ease of use, cleanliness and security.

GSK Begins RFID Pilot Program

RFID and the Future of Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

PDA's Technical Report No. 39 provides guidance for protecting temperature-sensitive products.

The Pharmaceutical Industry has been slow in adopting radio frequency technology (RFID) to help control diversion and counterfeiting, according to a recent study by ABI Research (Oyster Bay, NY, www.abiresearch.com). In fact, only 10 drug products are expected to be shipped with RFID tags or smart chips embedded in the labeling in the coming year.

The type of robot used for placing and stacking the BFS cards is important. Conventional multi-axes designs have limited flexibility, often combined with high inertia that limits operating speeds.

Pfizer Combats Counterfeiters with RFID

The extensible markup language (XML) format facilitates compliance with FDA's new requirements for prescription drug labeling submissions, improves patient safety, and enhances manufacturing sponsor efficiencies.

Although there is no global regulation or industry standard on labelling requirements, some organizations are beginning to lay down their own standards.

Virtual labels eliminate the need for troublesome transfer ribbons or inkjet fluids, which are inherent with traditional labelling technologies.

Design Exhibition, ?From Master?s Thesis to Medicine Cabinet?

A radiotracer technique is a simple, fast, and sensitive technique for analyzing the integrity of clinical supply packages to water.

Although patient compliance problems have been receiving attention for at least a decade, many medications are still dispensed in bottles that contain a supply intended to last days or weeks and require considerable effort on the part of the patient or caregiver to keep track of the dosing schedule. As a result, when it comes to consistently taking the right dose at the right time for the duration of a prescription, many consumers don't do a very good job.

Adding Braille to pharmaceutical packaging should be less of a challenge with the use of Esko-Graphics' Scope solution. EC Directive 2004/27/CE requires Braille labelling and information to be provided with pharmaceutical products for human use, and companies are scrambling to implement this by 31 October.

A fleet of pharmaceutical manufacturers have green lighted new bar coding and e-pedigree pilots using electronic barcodes. But is Industry ready for full-scale RFID?

Cephalon partners with hardware and software providers to test item-level tagging.

Solid dosage form manufacturers have long relied on shape and color as well as on-pill imprints of logos, product names, or numbers for product identification. But in these days of heightened counterfeiting concerns, the industry has a growing interest in adding more difficult-to-duplicate features to the pool of existing product identification techniques. Added security is particularly important on high-profile or high-cost drugs, as well as on pharmaceutical products supplied in bulk for repackaging.

Cold chain management is becoming pivotal to success in the pharmaceutical industry.

Blister Packaging Trumps Bottles For Patient Compliance, Study Shows

Most experts recommend layering protective technologies by selecting a combination of overt and covert techniques.

Purdue?s RFID Pedigree Program Enters Pilot Phase

The unit-dose bar coding rule requires integrating many aspects of packaging design and control.

To help reduce the risks of operator exposure and process cross contamination of powdered materials in the pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) has published ISPE Good Practice Guide: Assessing the Particulate Containment Performance of Pharmaceutical Equipment.