BMS rolls out datamatrix coding to meet CIP13 requirements

Bristol-Myers Squibb says it has implemented 2D datamatrix coding capabilities on 25 production lines serving the French market in order to comply with the country's CIP13 coding requirements, which allow traceability of pharmaceuticals at batch level.

The coding systems were bought from Zetes and cover datamatrix marking, labelling and tamper-evident sealing, depending on the application. They handle high volumes, up to 400 containers per minute per packaging line, and enable BMS to achieve "100 per cent control over the quality of the identified products," according to the company.

A number of drugmakers have taken France's CIP13 requirements as a stepping stone towards full item-level serialisation. From the beginning of 2011, all packs in France have had to bear a 13-digit number, coded in a 2D datamatrix alongside the batch number and expiration date, as well as in human-readable form.

For many companies - including GlaxoSmithKline and Merck Serono -  the need to print datamatrix codes has been a prompt to put packaging lines in place that can accommodate individual pack-level serial numbers, a requirement that looks set to emerge as a result of the falsified medicines directive in Europe as well as other initiatives around the world.

A video showcasing the coding systems in BMS' facility in Agen, France, can be seen below:



Commenting on the implementation, Sylvain Ballesta, project manager at BMS said: "Our production site in Agen is the biggest in the world for effervescent products, 400 million boxes of medicines come off the conveyor belt every year."

"The stoppage of a machine on a line interrupts the entire production, so we wanted machines that were extremely robust and adapted to our needs."