Hewlett-Packard (HP), Nosco, SupplyScape and Systech International have partnered to offer pharmaceutical companies an integrated solution consisting of software, hardware, RFID tags and 2-D bar-coded labels and services. The solution is designed to help fight drug counterfeiting and create electronic pedigrees (e-pedigrees) documenting the movement of medicines throughout the supply chain.
The solution includes SupplyScape’s software for creating e-pedigrees, managing product serialization data and following compliance with the variety of state laws calling for either e-pedigrees or paper-based pedigrees within the pharmaceutical supply chain. It also incorporates HP’s consulting, integration and project-management services to help companies architect and implement the e-pedigree solutions that best fit their operations; Nosco’s RFID and bar-code labeling and packaging products; and Systech International’s software for managing label printer-encoders, RFID interrogators, bar-code scanners and other packaging-line devices.
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A sample pharmaceutical pedigree. Click here to view a larger version.
Two or more of the companies had already worked together on different projects for customers. For example, SupplyScape and Systech International partnered at least three years ago to assist Pfizer, which is testing an e-pedigree system for its Viagra product (see Pfizer Prepares for Viagra E-Pedigree Trial).
Graham Clark, SupplyScape’s VP of business development, says the group decided to formally test and integrate the various components so implementations could be achieved more easily and quickly. “It made a lot of sense—rather than reinvent the wheel every time we all work with customers—to get together integrated component solutions and bundle them together,” Clark says.
The solution is not being sold as a fixed package, however. Rather, HP will likely serve as lead vendor and pull the various components together for customers.
An increasing number of pharmaceutical companies are stepping up efforts to get e-pedigree systems put into place (see Cardinal Health Deploying Drug E-Pedigree System). A California law calling for e-pedigrees takes effect in 2009, and drug manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors must comply with the requirements. The law mandates that manufacturers create unique identifiers for products, track each product’s pedigree and maintain electronic supply chain records, and that wholesalers and distributors be able to document receipt of the serialized products.
The partners have kicked off a series of e-pedigree workshops and are meeting with nearly 100 drug companies. The first workshops are being held this week, on Tuesday in Chicago, and on Thursday in Princeton, N.J. Another seminar will take place on Oct. 30 in Irvine, Calif., Clark says, and other dates and cities may be added in the future.