COVID Outbreak: Why Pharmaceutical Serialization is the Need of the Hour

The COVID outbreak in the beginning of 2020 has brought many industries to grinding halt, the primary of them being the Pharmaceutical industry. This one, in fact, has been facing a dilemma because of the pandemic situation. While the pharmaceutical supply chain is stretching itself to produce more medicines to address the increasing need of combating COVID, it is also facing the increasing threat of counterfeit drugs. In Brazil, which is the world’s second largest manufacturer of drugs is witnessing four times the number of counterfeit drug circulation. It is believed that close to 60 of their prescription drugs are being circulated as counterfeits. This is also growing pertinent in several African regions too, increasing the tension in the industry even further.

Imagine the harm to health and human lives these medicines can do if used! Counteracting the influences of duplicate drugs are countries like USA that have put standard operation procedures relation to pharmaceutical track and trace in place to enhance drug transparency between different supply chain stakeholders. Pharmaceutical serialization process is an important aspect of the drug track and trace because it comprises managing data with the help of AR-driven multi-scanners, which help in keeping records of sorting, loading, and inventories, apart from engaging smart technologies like rapid screening to ensure that drug batches with the right expiry dates, names of manufacturers, unique identity number and serial numbers reach the right centers at the right time.

Benefits of pharmaceutical serialization

Pharmaceutical serialization has become a top necessity among supply chain stakeholders who have taken pharmaceutical track and trace seriously to locate the origins of the drug supply and also keep an updated inventory ready for the usage at every stage of the supply chain. However, it is little known how serialization has permeated into benefits that are above and beyond the peripheries of the DSCSA-compliance. To cite some of them:

• Market analysis: Owing to the data storage that rapid screening can do within seconds, it can store details for government reports and market analysis. With pharmaceutical serialization, a pattern is established reading into the demand and supply cycle of a drug, thus building a better understanding of the market, preparing the supply chain participants for the future.
• Product recalls: With the help of verification routing services, serialization gets a notch better, familiarizing with the timeline and journey of a product. So, if there’s a recall required, the data obtained from a multi-scanner can trace the origin of the product.
• Drug shortage: It becomes easier to manage inventories because participants of the pharmaceutical supply chain know where the inventories are lacking and which ones need re-fulfillment. This avoids chances of drug shortage.
• Increasing revenues: Artificial Intelligence, coupled with Big Data and Augmented Reality (AR)-driven technology have helped in reducing the turn around time in scanning, sorting and loading of products by around 60%. With multi scanning and visual scanning, thousands of unique barcodes can be scanned in seconds, requiring lesser manpower. This reflects in the annual revenues that translate into profits of over 400%.

But above all, pharmaceutical serialization has worked zero-error serialization, thus eliminating the chances of counterfeit or contraband drugs interfering with quality healthcare supply. During such times when the drug supply chain should work together for the combined benefit of the human race, serialization is all one can ask for.