Firms in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry must seriously consider printing serial numbers on their products, an expert says.
Mark Davison of Blue Sphere Health, the author of a new executive briefing for Securing Pharma, says that serialisation is a vital weapon in the fight against counterfeit medicine.
Serialisation involves placing a unique identification code on each individual piece of packaging.
This would not only be a strong anti-counterfeiting measure, it could also help pharmaceutical manufacturing firms with supply chain security, Mr Davison suggests.
"On balance, the long-term benefits of serialisation are huge … manufacturing quality issues can be dealt with at much higher resolution than at present – partial batch recalls alone could save millions," he said in the Securing Pharma report.
Biotechnology analyst Savvas Neophytou recently told British pharmaceutical manufacturing firms that the latest Budget provides growth opportunities, thanks to an increase in tax breaks for research and development.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the pharmaceutical industry includes:
