In order to combat counterfeiting and parallel trade, there is a need to serialise drugs in a number of markets. Courbon Software, a VINCI Energies business unit at the leading edge of this field, is rolling out its solution worldwide.
The European Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), in effect since February 2019, requires laboratories and pharmacies to ensure that drugs are serialised. This means setting up a system to verify the authenticity of products, which involves adding a unique serial number to each drug package – a number that is then logged in a central database. This system of “package traceability” is intended to prevent counterfeiting and parallel trade.
VINCI Energies business unit Courbon Software, which publishes MES software for the industrial sector, anticipated this regulatory development by creating an ad-hoc, Industry 4.0-ready solution 8 years ago. Named “Pharmacim-LSM” (Label Serialization Management), it is one of 5 flagship solutions in the market.
“We allocate between 10 and 20% of our sales to R&D, which allows us to invest in innovation and development for new products,” says François Lavabre, business manager of Courbon Software.
The Pharmacim-LSM solution is currently deployed across some 300 production lines worldwide on behalf of a dozen clients, including Delpharm.
This French pharmaceutical manufacturer, which started looking into drug serialisation back in 2012, appointed Courbon Software in 2014 to incorporate the solution into all of its sites. “With this type of project, you need to be inventive in all areas – not just in terms of the software but also the machines,” points out Lavabre.
