Variable Inkjet Coding Application In Pharmaceutical

More than half of 2017 data revealed that the total global drug expenditure is expected to exceed US$1 trillion, and meeting the demand for standardized serialized drug packaging has become a key issue. There is now a large-scale strengthening of legislation that prevents counterfeiting of drug packaging and protects patient safety. For the pharmaceutical industry, there are thousands of packaging lines that need to be replaced, and the capital required amounts to 7 billion U.S. dollars. However, if precise coding and marking technology is not adopted, the serialization work will not be effectively carried out.

Now variable coding technology is mainly used for secondary packaging (such as cartons), but the market has targeted coding technology on primary packaging (such as blister packaging). Because of this, there are already a series of variable inkjet printing solutions available for printing on these two packaging types. However, when selecting the appropriate technology, manufacturers first need to consider the material characteristics and the available inkjet printing. area. Material characteristics, as well as uptime and encoding resolution requirements will affect the determination of the printing solution for the specified serialization plan.

After ensuring the appropriate printing capabilities, the next step is to collect product information so that it can be traced throughout the supply chain. Stable product control is of paramount importance in avoiding substandard products. Directly integrate the printing and inspection system into a cartoning machine or a dedicated conveying system. It must be used to manage a large amount of product information data created throughout the supply chain. This may be achieved through aggregation, that is, a unique code is created on the outer package and directly connected to the small package inside the package. Products printed using the aggregation method do not need to be opened for scanning as they travel through the entire supply chain. Downstream in the supply chain, reading the box or pallet code can infer that all small packages connected to the outer box are inside. In this way, coding quality and data integrity are of utmost importance. In order to gather the cartons or packaging bottles into the box, the serial number should be printed at a moment, which is printed immediately after the product is placed in the box, so as to ensure the integrity of the data.

The promulgation of some bills has stimulated a new market for drug retrospective coding technology, and may also bring new profit points to companies in the drug supply chain. Even for pharmaceutical companies that have not yet launched their pharmaceutical products on the market, it will not be too late to quickly launch a pharmaceutical serialization strategy.