WITH the falsified medicine regulations on pharmaceutical packaging changing in just a few months, Wasdell Packaging is staying one step ahead in the fight to stop counterfeit drugs thanks to a £1 million investment in serialisation (track and trace) technology.

The technology enables each pack produced at Wasdell’s Blagrove plant to be serialised, tamper-proofed and aggregated at case and pallet levels.

In a united approach to the safety and security of the general public, pharmaceutical products will be able to be tracked and traced no matter where they’re sold in the world. The regulations are currently due to come into force for Europe under the EU Falsified Medicines Directives (FMD) in February 2019, which will require every packet to contain a 2D barcode which can be scanned to show details of what it contains and where it has been processed.

With regulations differing for each country, Wasdell has commissioned machinery that will enable them to meet these new legal requirements as and when each different region adopts them, and to their precise specifications. Wasdell currently hold licences that allow them to package and distribute pharmaceutical goods for customers across Australasia, Canada, Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, Russia, Scandinavia and the USA.

Wasdell’s £1m project was overseen by Group Validation Manager Ayo Sotannde and will see four new machines being added to the production line, with the first one now in operation.

Ayo said: “Wasdell has worked closely with the software designers and manufacturers of this machine to specify exactly what we need according to our clients’ needs across the world.

“We’ve taken a very proactive approach here and have been preparing for the arrival of this legislation for almost a year. This first machine will enable us to help protect our clients’ goods and the general public against counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Through using an app, people will be able to scan in the new barcode on their pharmaceutical package, which will show that the product is genuine and also where it has come from. This will also be an indispensable tool should any products be recalled; making it easier to track and trace potentially affected drugs.

“Our production operatives are undergoing training on the machine now so we are ready for when the legislation comes in.”