TOSHIBA TEC Europe joins Unisys EU Guardian program

TOSHIBA TEC Europe, a retail and industrial automation solutions provider, has announced that it has joined the Unisys-led European Union (EU) Guardian program, an industry-wide collaboration to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain and increase patient safety as well as batch traceability.

The EU Guardian program workgroup believes that increased counterfeiting activity and tighter EU regulation is creating a challenging environment for the European pharmaceutical industry. To meet these challenges, the industry needs advanced supply chain security. With the aim to provide a detailed plan for testing and piloting the key technologies and processes that will create a secure pharmaceutical supply chain, the program brings together key players within the pharmaceutical industry as well as specialist vendors and suppliers.

TOSHIBA TEC Europe is the only desktop label printer vendor in the EU Guardian Program, providing know-how and high-quality hardware for both pilot projects as well as long-term technology solutions in the European pharmaceutical industry. TOSHIBA TEC label printers actively support 1D, 2D barcode printer as well as RFID solutions at all levels of packaging. The EU Guardian program workgroup has defined Datamatrix as the immediate target but electronic patient records and ePrescriptions all point to the need for full electronic pedigrees and RFID in future.

Rob McGregor, TOSHIBA TEC Europe Guardian project manager, said: ‘Whether you are looking for Datamatrix barcode printing or RFID, all solutions can be implemented with an upgrade strategy or a mix of technologies. You just need to be guided on the best technology for the business need.’

David Collins, enterprise Security initiatives practice director at Unisys, said: ‘Pharmaceutical supply chain security is rapidly becoming the number one priority for those served by and within the industry. Legislation is inevitable but by being proactive the industry can look to influence such legislation and ensure that it works for all parties. Guardian is an opportunity to work collaboratively to address these challenges.’

In the immediate-term, the program is working to increase the efficiency of the supply chain, while also authenticating products and medicines at the point of dispensing to patients and achieving batch traceability. This meets the program's key strategies of ensuring patient safety, combating the increase in volume and spread of counterfeit medicines and also compliance with likely new regulation from the EU.

The White Paper with a more complete summary of the EU Guardian Program's findings can be found at www.toshibatec-eu.com/whitepaperGuardian.