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The Importance of Serialization and Tracking with David Gibson

Posted by: David Gibson on Aug 7, 2019 3:33:15 PM

 

[Transcript] "Hi, David Gibson again, process engineer with Tapemark in St. Paul, Minnesota. We're talking about track and trace or as the government calls it, the drug supply chain security act. One of the key elements of this system is it electronically tracks pharmaceutical products from their manufacturer, through their packaging, and ultimately to the pharmacy in which the prescription is filled. Well, it all comes down to the serial number. Each level of packaging should have its own unique serial number. What do I mean by that? Well, if you have an individual dose of drug, you can put a unique serial number on that, and here at Tapemark we have the ability to combine that with a unique serial number on each and every carton that holds the drug. So then we take this serial number here, combine it to the shipping case, to a pallet, and  to a whole shipment that's heading out to a distribution center. But even though it's a whole pallet, or multiple pallets full of pharmaceutical product, we know each and every serial number that's contained in that shipment, and God forbid you needed to recall a particular box of your product, we can tell you exactly where it is because all of these associations; dose, the carton, the case, the pallet, and shipment are controlled electronically. They're collected electronically based on the unique serial number on the package."

Topics: Serialization