Driven by a growing problem with counterfeit and diverted pharmaceutical products and the subsequent interest by US and European governments in securing the supply chain with electronic pedigrees, many pharmaceutical companies are looking at unit level serialisation to uniquely identify products. They are studying how either barcodes or RFID (or both) can be used on packaging to convey unique identifiers that can be used in electronic tracking programmes.
But are electronic pedigrees or track and trace all you need for securing the supply chain?
A consortium of UK based companies believe not. They argue that track and trace needs combining with authentication technologies to ensure that it is the product that is authenticated not just a number.
And so the vision of SecureTrace was born.
