PCI Pharma Services announces expansion in serialisation technology, tripling global capacity
PCI Pharma Services (PCI) has announced a significant expansion of its market leading serialisation capability. The company will increase serialisation capacity across its global supply network to support clients in advance of meeting both US DSCSA and EU FMD implementation dates.
PCI has been actively serialising commercial products for both domestic and international markets for the past five years, with products destined for North America and Europe, in addition to emerging market geographies such as South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, China and others. In total, PCI supports medicines destined to over 100 global countries. The company’s announced expansion triples its global serialisation capacity in advance of upcoming DSCSA and FMD requirements.
PCI has partnered with Antares Vision, Marchesini and Domino for this latest installation, utilising Antares’ leading serialisation platform and technology architecture across a variety of serialisation technology platforms and applications. The multi-site installations support a variety of drug delivery forms, including bottles, unit cartons and parenteral kits, as well as unit dose wallets and child resistant/compliance prompting packaging.
In addition, serialisation technologies support ancillary and tertiary packaging, corrugated shippers and palletisation solutions for supporting multi-level product aggregation. Aggregation is technically not a requirement for compliance to the 2017 DSCSA deadline, however PCI has strongly supported the advanced use of aggregation to realise significant benefits in packaging operations as well as the broader pharmaceutical supply chain.
Commenting on the expansion, vice president of global engineering, Ken Richardson, shared: “Serialisation preparedness is the topic on everyone’s mind in the pharmaceutical industry. We are very excited about the next phase of our global serialisation initiative and brand security program here at PCI. Having active developed and supported serialisation over the past five years with numerous commercial applications around the world, we have a significant body of knowledge to share with clients. With these key learnings from practical applications of serialisation and anti-counterfeiting technologies, we have positioned ourselves to support our clients as they start to truly develop their own global serialisation strategies.
“This latest investment is considerable, and features what we believe are truly industry-leading technologies. The spotlight is on the industry to meet the November deadline and PCI has directed an amazing amount of financial resource, technological expertise and manpower to help our clients be prepared.”
PCI’s announcement of its recent serialisation expansion complements an announcement in late 2016 of its investment in site capacity expansion for its market leading commercial contract packaging services. PCI sites in Philadelphia and Rockford added multiple primary packaging lines including blister packaging, bottling, and pouch/sachet filling technologies as demand continues to grow for outsourced packaging services.
In addition, over the past 18 months PCI has hosted regional serialisation forums in geographical pharmaceutical concentrations including Philadelphia, Boston, Research Triangle Park (RTP) North Carolina, Chicago/Rockford, San Diego, San Francisco, and most recently London, drawing considerable crowds and interest.