Information sharing a valuable aspect of serialisation, according to poll

TraceLink has announced industry findings from an interactive poll taken during its annual conference, NEXUS ’17, which reveal that information sharing between trading partners is considered to be one of the most valuable benefits of serialisation.

Event attendees were asked questions about serialisation preparation, challenges and trade partner readiness during live polling sessions that took place across the two-day conference. The poll revealed that the majority of attendees (78%) believe that end-to-end visibility of pharmaceutical products in the supply chain is achievable over the next five years.

“There is a tremendous value in connecting companies and trade partners together in an educational forum, allowing everyone to equally learn from collective wisdom. This year, NEXUS truly showcased the power of the network in the pharmaceutical supply chain,” said Shabbir Dahod, president and CEO of TraceLink. “As serialisation deadlines fall into place, now is the time to leverage the foundation of an integrated network in order to enhance real-time communication and information exchange between all of the partners in the supply chain.”

Among concerns rated in the poll were worries about exchanging information (nearly half of respondents cited this) and testing and validation of systems (21% ranked this as a concern). The greatest serialisation challenge highlighted by 47% of event attendees was line vendors’ inability to deliver a solution on time and within scope. The second most cited challenge (at 26%) was lack of Level 3 functionality and flexibility to fulfil business requirements in the solution.

Responding to questions about relationships with contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs) and contract packaging organisations (CPOs) over two-thirds of attendees felt that these partners are not well prepared to meet serialisation requirements. Moreover, 89% stated that their CMOs should integrate serialisation into their current packaging lines with data management.

TraceLink is a track and trace network for connecting the life sciences supply chain and providing real-time information sharing for better patient outcomes. Its annual conference, NEXUS ’17, was held in Barcelona in June during which the company introduced its strategy for leveraging the industry’s digital supply chain network for real-time information sharing.