Pharmaceutical company Sandoz uses RFID technology in injectable drugs

Sandoz, a subsidiary of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, one of the worlds three largest pharmaceutical companies, announced earlier this month that it will cooperate with Kit Check, an RFID automated medical management solution company, to launch the first batch of three RFID-labeled RFID tags to American hospitals this month. An injectable drug.

These three drugs include succinylcholine and rocuronium, which are used to relax muscles and paralyze during surgery, and norepinephrine, which is used to increase/maintain blood pressure. It is expected that by the first quarter of 2021, Sandoz will also provide more drugs with RFID tags to Kit Check's hospital partners.

Sandoz President Carol Lynch said: Ensuring adequate inventory of key drugs is essential for hospitals to effectively treat patients, especially during COVID-19. Several drugs included in our cooperation with Kit Check are important. Hospital drugs. Doctors rely on these drugs to rescue critically ill patients in a timely manner. This is in line with our strategy of supplementing our ongoing work through disruptive channels to ensure a reliable supply of high-quality injectable drugs to meet the needs of hospital patients."

Sandoz and Kit Check's cooperation began with a common customer of the two companies. After cooperating with Kit Check, Sandoz will be able to provide real-time inventory reports, timely tracking of product expiration dates and recalls to help hospital pharmacies improve efficiency, reduce risks, and better support hospital treatment of patients. This will help the long-term automatic replenishment of medicines. Especially during the epidemic, when the medical system has been severely challenged and overwhelmed, ensuring that medicines are available at any time is also very important for patient care in addition to maintaining price stability.

Kit Check is a supplier of automated drug tracking solutions for US hospital pharmacies, bringing visibility, convenience and predictability to complex drug supply chain management. The company's pioneering drug information platform provides item-level visibility, simplified operating procedures, and feasibility analysis, enabling stakeholders to provide patients with the correct drugs at the appropriate time.

The Kit Check flagship product is an automatic medication tray management system based on RFID tags, designed to help hospital pharmacies better understand the use and expiry date of medications, improve efficiency, and free up medical staff to focus on patient care. The Kit Check solution has been applied to more than 500 hospitals in the United States and Canada.

RFID tags are used in vials, syringes and other medicine packaging, as well as consumables in trays and surgical kits. They are also used to track each medicine in hospital pharmacies. The scanner will automatically identify the NDC (National Drug Code), batch number and expiration date of the product, thereby saving medical staff time and reducing the risk of medical errors. Therefore, the hospital pharmacy can view the entire flow of medicines from the factory to the management point in real time.

The application of RFID technology in the medical field will be further expanded in the future. Kevin Macdonald, CEO and co-founder of Kit Check, said: "We have seen RFID revolutionize the supply chain for retail, aerospace, and other industrial applications. This technology allows for detailed and interoperable items Level data, which can be scanned and updated without sight."

Since 2012, Kit Check has been focusing on RFID drug inventory management applications in the US hospital market. In the past, clinicians needed to stick RFID tags on medicine bottles and syringes for scanning in Kit Checks proprietary scanner. However, as Sandoz launches drugs with RFID tags in advance, the vials will be directly embedded with the RFID tags in the dosage packaging outside the production line before being transported to the hospital. This saves more cost and time for clinicians.

Robert Spinner, a key customer and sales vice president of Sandoz, said: "Although this technology is not a new technology and has been used in many other automation industries, it is new to the pharmaceutical industry. For all of us, integrating this technology into our manufacturing process is something we need to learn. We have realized that RFID has many benefits. It can track and report in a timely manner, and has the transparency of inventory shortages. Notifying reorders when stocks are low will also help with drug recalls and determining drug expiration dates. We look forward to the spread of RFID."

On the whole, Robert Spinner believes that COVID-19 provides an opportunity for the medical industry to understand how to communicate in an organizational way, how to work as a team, and how to contact customers and suppliers to ensure The patient has the opportunity to obtain the required medicines when necessary.

Sandoz and Kit Check are both members of the newly established industry alliance DoseID, which was established in August 2020 to achieve the standardization and interoperability of RFID in the pharmaceutical supply chain.