Laser Coding – A Technology Of Choice For The Pharmaceutical Industry

By Mark Shaffer

The year 2018 will see the implementation of new regulations in the fight against counterfeiting in the European pharmaceutical industry via the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). Since the countdown began, the industry has been speculating on the delegated acts of the Directive that will result in a safer supply chain, exact details of which are due to be announced at the end of 2015. However, even before the FMD and other similar legislation was announced, global manufacturers had already started to improve product identification using item-level serialisation. The goal is to increase security in the supply chain and ultimately consumer confidence in the authenticity of the pharmaceuticals that they are prescribed. One such product identification solution that is increasing in adoption is the use of 2D Data Matrix coding (DM).

To date, laser coding technology has been the preferred choice for the pharmaceutical industry, but with increasingly complex coding requirements, some may argue that lasers have reached their limit. Or have they?