The IoT holds the secret to good, non-intrusive security, and a development partnership has taken a big step in making that a reality in the pharmaceutical industry.
WuXi PharmaTech, a medical device, biotech and pharma R&D company, and TruTag Technologies, developer of a new, edible security platform for pharmaceuticals, on August 10 announced the successful completion of joint testing of the on-dose authentication solution.
Drug manufacturers implant the TruTags into medications, coded with manufacturing location, dose, packaging images, expiration date, supply chain data and lot or batch numbers. Then, distributors and receivers can do a simple digital scan of the drug to confirm its authenticity and determine legitimate provenance. The partners have been working together on the solution since 2014.
“We are very excited about these results,” said Dr. Ge Li, Chairman and CEO, WuXi PharmaTech. “At WuXi, we are always seeking cutting-edge solutions like TruTags to help support the development and protection of our customers’ innovative products.”
Some of the results of the testing were: TruTags can be applied to solid oral dosage, no new manufacturing equipment or processes are needed; after application on manufactured tablets, tags were successfully detected using the proprietary optical detection device; apart from that detection process, the devices are undetectable and not visually identifiable and remain with the tablet for its entire life; the solution did not affect the stability or dissolution properties of API drugs in completed accelerated open and closed bottle testing.
Image via Shutterstock WuXi and TruTag will now begin further testing. They will also produce a technical white paper for the industry detailing the results of the application method and practice, the detection process and data collection, and outcomes of dissolution and stability testing. TruTag is already working with several multinational pharmaceutical companies in pilot testing for broad deployment of this technology in marketed SODF drugs and product candidates.
“We have demonstrated the ability of our technology to integrate an edible and safe identification code directly into an oral solid drug, thereby indelibly marking the product with an internal code for its lifetime,” said Kent Mansfield, President, TruTag Technologies. “In the near term, this will allow drug manufacturers and distributors to have the ultimate audit of a drug's provenance and origin without reliance on packaging or laboratory chemical analysis.”
Expect to see these “tracer drugs” in every pharmacy, hospital and doctor’s office in the very near future, folks. For more on this kind of IoT innovation, join us next week at the IoT Evolution Expo , August 17 to 20, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.
Edited by
Dominick Sorrentino
