NEW YORK, May 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Secure Symbology, Inc. (SSI), a leader in pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting, track and trace solutions, today announced the details of an exclusive collaboration agreement with the former Pharmaceutical Technology & Services (PTS) group of Cardinal Health. PTS, now privately held by the Blackstone Group, is the leading provider of contract services supporting the health-care industry.
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The purpose of the agreement is to develop and commercialize enabling technologies that improve the security of the pharmaceutical supply chain by allowing drugs to be uniquely tracked and traced as they move from production floors to pharmacy shelves.
Working under this exclusive collaboration agreement, PTS and SSI have developed an anti-counterfeiting, track and trace solution designed to meet today’s regulatory e-pedigree requirements by using standard bar code symbologies combined with a secure, hashed database in a unique way to serialize individual product units.
“SSI’s track and trace system, is a complete, immediately deployable solution that includes a means of adding additional layers of security such as RFID,” said Renard Jackson, vice president and general manager of global packaging solutions for PTS. “While we don’t necessarily expect this technology to replace the future use of RFID, the technology offers a cost- effective, secure, “turnkey” anti-counterfeiting system that will track and trace pharmaceuticals at every stage of the supply chain. We feel that SSI has developed the best technology to deliver both e-pedigree and anti- counterfeiting. We are particularly impressed with the speed and accuracy of SSI’s equipment, which we have found to have a clear advantage over competing barcode technologies. It is our intent to expand the use of this technology with our manufacturing partners.”
With the ability to accept all 1-D and 2-D symbologies such as RSS or Datamatrix, SSI’s patented solution combines technologies to print, scan, grade, verify, compile and transfer serialized data, establishing a confidential, hashed database of a product’s packaging and shipment history. The system creates a practical electronic pedigree for every individual unit, and as a result, serialized product data and verification are available globally for any authorized supply chain member (manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, retailer, etc.), through a secure software application.
The value of this system is enhanced by the proprietary highly scalable and secure database structure developed by SSI that provides pharmaceutical manufacturers with capabilities to track and trace the movement of each packaged unit through the supply chain, past the point of sale and ultimately to the consumer.
The unique structure of this data base will not only allow manufacturers to meet evolving global regulatory standards that could change reporting standards and reporting formats, but also provides a hashed, secure and confidential reservoir of information that is specially designed to be used by pharmaceutical companies to actively and directly pursue anti-counterfeiting and anti-divergence strategies in an aggressive manner. The design of the SSI data warehouse is unique in that each pharmaceutical manufacturer will have its own secure database, to which it can hash and link other important internal information to create a first direct to consumer communication enabling easier, proactive recall mechanisms and product information. In addition, the SSI database prevents obsolescence as anti-counterfeiting regulatory requirements evolve and change over time on a state, national or global basis. The secure database will link to any communal e-pedigree database while providing manufacturers with more versatility and market intelligence.
Through a pilot program, PTS assisted SSI to develop the ESC(TM) System in a real-world packaging environment. The pilot created a complete, end-to-end, solution that combined proprietary and best of breed technology in order to affect all necessary steps for tracking, tracing and authenticating drugs in the supply chain. Having the capability of operating at production line speeds, the equipment is designed to seamlessly integrate into existing production lines of pharmaceutical manufacturers and packagers without any disruption or slow down of the packaging process. Most existing scanner technology at pharmaceutical dispensing locations is able to read the serialized bar codes, which will help facilitate adoption of the technology.
SSI’s Chairman, Graham Sampson said " While we were initially very concerned about the extremely rigorous and challenging standards set by PTS for our system, we soon realized that the additional time and cost required to build our patent pending system has allowed us to create a unit that far exceeds the bar code printing capabilities that presently exist within the industry. We are clearly grateful for the access to the tremendous expertise, resources and testing capabilities of PTS that facilitated the successful completion of our system.”
Another important feature of the bar code technology is its adaptability to all pharmaceutical products, including the important area of biologics, which represent a significant portion of high value drugs that are often counterfeited. Currently, the FDA has not approved RFID for use on biologics until further work can be done to ensure that the radio wave transmission does not affect the product.
In addition, the serialized bar code enabled system is viewed as a partner to RFID in the e-Pedigree process. The SSI system, which extends through the entire supply chain, is designed to seamlessly integrate with RFID into the appropriate sub-segments of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Ultimately, once RFID settles on one standard and achieves cost efficiency, we expect the two systems to co-exist.
About Secure Symbology ( www.securesymbology.com ) -- Headquartered in Wayne, NJ with technology offices in Sterling, VA and research offices in New York, NY, Secure Symbology, (SSI) Inc provides complete anti-counterfeiting solutions to all industries, including a special focus on the pharmaceutical industry. SSI’s product suite leverages its patented bar coding methodologies to provide cost-efficient and obsolescence-proof anti-counterfeiting, track and trace solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into any manufacturer’s production line. Through the use of advanced engineering, sophisticated database design, pharmaceutical supply chain knowledge, and a series of patents, SSI has established itself as the leader in anti-counterfeiting.
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CONTACT: Katie Leighton, +1-610-513-6930, Katie.Leighton@usa.com, forSecure Symbology, Inc.
Web site: http://www.securesymbology.com/
