Jan 17, 2020Printing and specialty labels company Schreiner MediPharm is offering a new line of flexible, low-cost radio frequency identification (RFID) and Near Field Communication (NFC) labels intended to help drug companies provide a digital connection with patients and retailers. The labels are intended for use in pharmaceutical vials, syringes, auto-injection devices or medical applications so that individuals can capture information by tapping a mobile phone or reader near a product.
The NFC solution's new labelling options are made possible by Schreiner MediPharm's partnership with PragmatIC. Several pharmaceutical companies are currently evaluating or piloting the new label options, says Arne Rehm, Schreiner MediPharm's product manager for RFID and NFC solutions, though these companies have asked not to be named.
Schreiner MediPharm already offers HF, NFC and UHF RFID solutions customized according to the requirements of a particular customer's use case. NFC and HF solutions are mainly used for product authentication by enabling interaction with smartphones or connected devices. UHF RFID, on the other hand, is being employed for classic bulk reading or long-range logistic applications from a large number of individual containers, Rehm explains, thereby providing inventory or supply chain management functionality.
Several trends are contributing to the growth of NFC and UHF RFID in the pharmaceutical market, Rehm reports. In the case of UHF, drug companies and retailers are better able to track the flow and inventory of high-value medicines from manufacture to patient, as well as monitoring expiration dates and enabling fast and automated recalls. In recent years, Rehm says, NFC is also being adopted to help patients take their medications. With the integration and support of smartphones, he adds, NFC solutions are a tool to improve the interaction and use of products.
In January 2019, several of Schreiner MediPharm's pharmaceutical clients began piloting an NFC-based system known as the Smart Vial Kit, which utilizes an NFC tag attached to product packaging in order to identify when specific medications are taken (see NFC Helps Track Medication Use in Clinical Trials). The challenge for Schreiner, Rehm says, has been that in the past, "We have often been confronted with requirements where not all the features of classic RFID chips were required, but the thinness, flexibility or costs were of particular importance."
According to Rehm, "We have been following the developments of PragmatIC for our purposes for quite some time now." But since mid-2019, he says, "We have intensified our cooperation to offer our customers the best possible selection of individual connectivity solutions." With regard to ConnectIC, he adds, "PragmatIC offers a great solution, which can also be further adapted to special customer requirements." The goal is to make RFID labels accessible and affordable for the pharmaceutical companies, which means providing labels that could be used on everything from high-value drugs to consumable devices.
ConnectIC flexible integrated circuits (FLexICs) enable Schreiner MediPharm to add RFID to a wider range of products than was previously not possible with traditional silicon chips, says Vincent Barlier, PragmatIC's sales manager. For example, due to their flexibility, they can be embedded into very small-radius packages or devices. Syringes with a radius of curvature of only a few millimeters typically do not lend themselves to standard NFC labels, but they could be tagged with the latest line of products using ConnectIC FlexICs.
The ICs, Barlier says, "are extremely thin and robust, making them easy to integrate using conventional converting lines." He adds that the chips are designed to be low enough in cost to remove the cost barrier for some high-volume or mass-market pharmaceutical products.
Projects are presently under way in which labels are being tested for use on various pharmaceutical products, but Barlier says these projects are still confidential. Initially, Schreiner MediPharm is using one standard ConnectIC—model PR1101—which is integrated with antennas specially designed and matched to the container sizes of many small drug products. "As we continue to work together," he states, "we will develop a roadmap of products that will enable Schreiner MediPharm to meet the needs of their customers."
Typically, Schreiner MediPharm will integrate each IC into an inlay or tag that will be built into a customized label for a bottle, syringe or other product. The finished inlay is thin; most of the thickness, in fact, will comprise the inlay substrate itself. A PET substrate, for example, would normally be around 50 micrometers (0.002 inch) in thickness, Barlier explains, and the FlexIC would add less than 20 micrometers (0.0008 inch) to that number. Together, the companies have built multiple inlays for product trials, with antenna sizes such as 18 millimeters by 24 millimeters (0.7 inch by 0.9 inch) and 16 millimeters by 44 millimeters (0.6 inch by 1.7 inches).
The ICs' robustness ensures that they can be integrated well into established inlay and converter manufacturing lines, the company reports, for which the fragility of unpackaged silicon can sometimes cause issues. ConnectIC's FlexICs can also be read at high speed, Barlier notes, so production line speeds will not be compromised. For Schreiner MediPharm, the use of NFC can help its customers prevent application errors when it comes to administering medication, as well as prevent the use of counterfeit drugs or refilled containers, which could endanger patients or affect diagnostic results.
"Together with partners such as PragmatIC," Rehm states, "we develop innovative solutions for the pharmaceutical and medical industries." While the company's primary focus is on labels, he adds, "With our Competence Centers Services, digital solutions and partner network of specialists, we support our customers far beyond that."
