The fight against counterfeiting and diversion is at a crossroad. Never has there been such a loss of revenue due to these global supply chain threats and it’s only getting worse. Companies are spending over $105 billion annually to combat these issues, yet this “gray market” of products is projected to surpass $2.8 trillion globally by 2022… That’s a 100% increase over ten years!
Near the end of 2019, there were rumors that the Russian Federation would extend its regulatory deadlines for pharmaceutical serialization and traceability past its initial January 1, 2020 deadline, which called for full serialization using Russian Crypto Codes and government reporting...
Change is afoot, we are entering a new phase of activity within the pharmaceutical sector. The next stage of patient protection is starting to take shape across the industry, and it is a case of going back to the future. Though, no DeLorean, TARDIS or even a hot tub time machine are needed to make this change, we are not going to have hover boards or give cousin Chuck Berry a new sound. Instead of fighting Daleks we are going to wage war on counterfeiters and grey marketeers.
Virtually all brands—from the utmost recognized to the newly eager—face threats of product counterfeiting and gray market trading. In emerging countries, this menace is bold and audacious with outright fakes appearing in the open marketplace. In developed countries, the problem is equally insidious due to online sales of counterfeit products through e-commerce platforms.
I recently attended PACK EXPO 2019 in Las Vegas, and boy… what a remarkable experience it was for me! It was my first PACK EXPO event—and for that matter my first packaging technology show—and it was quite an eye opener. I am relatively new to the space having worked at Systech for little over a year now. I must say that it seemed there was something for everyone at this show… from plant-based packing, to AI solutions, to fully automated packing solutions. I was most amazed by some of the...
Earlier this year, the FDA called on the life sciences and healthcare industry to design and deliver pilot projects for an electronic, interoperable system that can identify and trace prescription drugs as they are distributed across the United States in support of the DSCSA. Systech partnered with several industry innovators to respond to the FDA’s proposal including RxTransparent, T-Systems, FarmaTrust, CryptoWerk and CalQLogic.
No country is immune from the ravages of drug addiction, abuse and overdose. Last month, news broke of the rising number of deaths in Northern Ireland and the entire UK in general due to counterfeit Xanax which is indicative of this global epidemic. It doesn’t matter if a drug is legalized, prescription-only or not even for sale in a country. If there is a demand for it, it will be available by some channel. No software company, Systech included, is going to stop counterfeiters from...
First, allow me to set the stage with some facts:
A few months ago, the government of the Russian Federation adopted Order Number 791-r, which appears to have significance for pharma serialization there. The primary deviation from the pharma serialization specification that has dictated the government pilot in Russia since early 2017 is the addition of two new data elements to the datamatrix barcode on secondary packaging. For the pilot, the datamatrix barcode contained:
Vincent Willem van Gogh is remembered as the quintessential tragic artist, having been relatively unsuccessful during his life and plagued by mental illness. While staring at the gardens out the window of the Saint-Paul asylum, could van Gogh even begin to comprehend the idea that some of his final works would be among his most famous and fetch prices upwards of $80M at auction? Could he even understand that his life, his techniques and body of work would be studied and treasured? Could he...
