Serialized Barcode Printing Solution for Drug Traceability: An Architectural Design and Approach

Medicine serialization seems to be a key to both counterfeiting and the complex supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry, including recalls and returns. Though there are countries that use serialization as a legal necessity, it is still a developing topic within the industry. Serialization is not just for anti-counterfeit technology but also to use supply chain and stock management more proficiently. The design of the Barcode is a fundamental requirement as per Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) guidelines for serialized products. Encoding Barcodes on pharmaceutical drugs with critical product attributes is necessary for tracking and validating product sources. Since the serialization guidelines are regulated, small-scale pharmaceutical companies are struggling to comply with regulations due to heavy investments. Printing Serialized labels with barcodes required specialized third-party systems and software. The cost of third-party systems that integrate with ERP and Serialized systems for exchanging data is very expensive. On the other hand, the operational and sustainability costs of these systems will be an additional year-to-year cost for the company.