Vertex, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, has applied identification codes to 117.5 million packages of drugs since July 1, 2020, which is the approved start date for mandatory labeling of medicines in Russia, the company reports.
“The manufacturer did not use the exemption applicablel during a transition period until October 2020 (the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 955 of 30.06.2020 on the specifics of introduction of medicines into civil circulation), as it was ready to work with the system for the monitoring the movement of medicines at the time of its introduction, despite the pandemic. Taking into account test shipments and data transfer to the system since the end of 2019, Vertex has labeled 120.3 million packages of medicines,” the report says.
The company mentiones that they have developed their own software solutions to support the production process, warehouse accounting, and shipment of labeled goods.
“Thanks to them, Vertex does not depend on external suppliers and program integrators. This approach results in the fast launch of the new functions of the system and supports its connection with all automated systems and processes of the company,” the statement says.
According to the project implementator, the area which was complicated by the new labeling most of all was the company’s business processes, and the first month of the system’s operation last July was the most stressful.
“Despite the fact that we were quite seriously prepared to start, a lot of issues avaited solution on a 24/7 basis. The measures taken made it possible to continue producing medicines at the same rate and without loss of productivity,” Georgy Pobeliansky, Vertex’s General Director, said.
It is stated that some changes have been introduced into the algorithms of interaction with the emission registrars, the order management station and the SIS MMM (the State Information System for Monitoring the Movement of Medicines). The company also launched an internal automated monitoring system to prevent emergency situations related to labeling.