The pharmaceutical industry is a massive global level industry. By the year 2023 it is projected that $1,520 billion will be spent on medicines. When it comes to the pharmaceutical industry, the U.S. dominates. North America alone holds responsibility for the largest revenue in pharmaceuticals. With that being said, it is hopeful that the U.S. regulations would be some of the strictest with pharmaceutical serialization for traceability and counterfeit detection. The U.S. currently has no centralized database for serialization and traceability.
Currently, there is a pharmaceutical regulation in the United States that demands pharmaceutical serialization on a package level. The intentions behind this regulation is that returned medicines will be closely monitored for counterfeits during the return process between wholesalers, hospitals and pharmacies. Item level traceability will be implemented in the pharmaceutical industry across the EU with a centralized regulation database. With the U.S. taking in the largest portion of revenue, it would be beneficial for a similar approach to be taken.
Item level traceability has potential to be beneficial and successful in the United States. Pharmacies receive inventory from pharmaceutical wholesalers and separate pills individually. During this sorting process, item level serialization can be checked for authentication. Our vTag® technology has the ability to apply serialization on an item level, including pharmaceuticals.
See our handheld device in action on an individual pill.