Blog about Pharmaceuticals – Medical devices – Clinical Trials and Health Care

7th October 2009 – is the anniversary of the first patent on the bar code. Inventors Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver filed the patent on October 1949, and it was granted #2,612,994 on October 7, 1952. The original patent was for a system that would encode data in circles (a bulls eye pattern), so that it could be scanned in any direction and was first created for use on train carriages.

In celebration, Google has replaced its homepage logo with a bar code. It is Code 128 encoded, which is a standard way of encoding ASCII character strings (i.e. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, etc.) into a barcode.

A traditional barcode is made up of a series of vertical bars of variable width that are scanned by a laser. This optical reader converts the information into a digital format which is then processed by a computer.

However, the Uniform Product code we use today to keep track of billions of items around the world, was invented by IBM engineer George Laurer in 1973.

As pressure from generics increases companies are starting to appreciate the value of brand loyalty.  There will always be some consumers that buy on price but for many a name you can trust is still important.  The focus on branding is impacting many of the labeling projects we are seeing.  A requirement for flexibility to include consistent branding elements on the secondary label is now common.   How this is managed across many different manufacturing, packaging and distribution sites is often the tricky bit.  This is where a web based system like PRISYM Medica comes into it’s own.  Imagine being able to share an approved label design with all your branding elements in place with any site in the world instantly within a compliant labeling system.  Only one design studio is necessary rather than label designers at every site.  This along with the lockable label formats in PRISYM means that the branding (along with all the vital, variable information) is easily controlled.