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.

The Pharmaceutical industry faces challenges in meeting the requirements for serialization coding, challenges
that PRISYMID has been addressing for almost two decades. Our proven, robust and extensively deployed
technology will meet your specific serialization requirements – no matter what manufacturing system, ERP
solution or printing and vision technology you use on your production lines.
‘PRISYM Medica for Oracle’ comprises a full suite of label and code printing applications based on the
Oracle Database and integration for connectivity to your current manufacturing and ERP system.

Serialisation
As new directives and regulations come into force to reduce reimbursement and counterfeit fraud it, is imperative that
organisations can adapt production processes swiftly and efficiently to comply with these regulations.
The latest addition to ‘PRISYM Medica for Oracle’ is the ‘Serialisation Link’ developed to meet the impending
serialisation legislation. Developed in collaboration with Oracle and specifically designed to create very high volumes
of unique, secured and ‘intelligent’ serial numbers. It provides serialised product for industry requirements such
as EFPIA and Turkey and could form the foundation of an ePedigree and EPCIS solution.

• Mass serialised number generation and management
• Serial number relationship and aggregation mapping
• Full cryptographic security
• Full Identity lifecycle Audit management

Get full details by checking this case study from Prisym Life Sciences website

The following post is a transcript of the Q&A session held recently at the labeling seminar we hosted in Philidelphia on 20th February 2009. It’s a frank discussion between representatives from leading pharmaceutical companies and myself, Product Manager for PRISYM ID.

The topics covered include the following and focus around our web-based labeling product Prisym MedicaWeb:

• Thick and thin clients for labeling solutions
• How a web-based solution can augment an existing package
• Client and server based printing
• Software version control
• Capturing customer label approvals through web-based software

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