Orion used the PackAgent solution to authenticate pharmaceutical products

Orion Oyj, the biggest pharmaceutical and healthcare equipment manufacturer in Finland is listed in the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Orion focuses on services for physicians, pharmacies, hospitals, clinics and their customers as well as other healthcare professionals. In order to maintain its profitability and meet product liability criteria, the transparency of the supply chain is important to Orion.

In spring 2006, Orion Pharma, a major Scandinavian pharmaceutical manufacturer sought to test item level mass-serialization and authentication of a certain pharmaceutical product. The company realized that existing marking technologies would not provide the level of security and supply chain efficiencies that they envisioned. Prior to this, none of Orion Pharma's products contained any unique markings nor had they any supply chain authentication solutions installed.

Because of the high costs, financially and in brand image, in the event of possible counterfeiting, Orion Pharma's management decided that it could gain significant benefits and advantage by securing its supply chain and products from possible counterfeiters . Successful application of this approach required that key wholesaler Oriola and leading pharmaceutical retailer University Pharmacy in Finland and Estonia became part of the secure authentication and pedigree network.

Orion Pharma applied Stora Enso's PackAgent authentication and an e-pedigree software solution to its key operations and extended this throughout the supply chain. Unique RFID labels containing secure ID numbers were applied to each pharmaceutical package already during the production and packaging process. At the end of the production line, all packages were scanned automatically with RFID reader and the solution registered time and location.

In the final analysis, Orion Pharma was able to ensure that its products were safeguarded against counterfeiting . This increased consumer safety and enhanced Orion Pharma's brand value as a trusted pharmaceutical manufacturer. In addition, there were new supply chain efficiencies that were made possible by utilizing Auto-ID technologies as well as PackAgent supply chain authentication software.

The main benefits for Orion

• All parties in the supply chain could monitor in real-time the flow of goods
• Product origin and authenticity could be verified instantly at the point of sale
• Reduction of manual work in multiple phases of logistics operations
• The system was installed and operational in less than three weeks
• Product recalls were simulated and easily managed with maximum efficiency