Prosper Africa’s Tech for Trade Alliance has launched a pilot project in SA seeking to improve the tracking of medicines using 2D bar codes. Prosper Africa is a presidential-level initiative aimed at strengthening trade between the US and Africa.
Better supply chain visibility is expected to provide US pharmaceutical manufacturers with the assurance that their products are reaching their intended destination and bolster trade with Africa. The African pharmaceutical market was estimated at $26.85bn in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 3.4% from 2024 to 2030, according to Grandview Research.
A 2D bar code stores information both vertically and horizontally and contains more data than the standard bar codes now used in SA’s pharmaceutical industry. They were already a legal requirement in the US and EU, said Josh Bolin, associate executive director, government affairs and innovation at the US National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, one of the Pulse project partners. Other partners include IBM, which will use its Watson AI capabilities to help improve the traceability of products exported to Africa, and SA pharmacy software firm ComputAssist.
The Pulse system enables a pharmacist to scan a 2D bar code using a smartphone, allowing the manufacturer to see where it is in the supply chain at any time. Multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers Roche and Pfizer are participating in the pilot project.
“This unlocks information that currently isn’t available to the manufacturers of those products,” said Bolin.
The SA pilot was a proof-of-concept project to demonstrate the technology could provide value to manufacturers with supply chain visibility, he said. A second pilot project is slated to launch in Kenya next year.
ComputAssist senior manager Robert Page said 2D bar codes allowed manufacturers to place a unique serial number on each package of medicine dispensed to a patient. Creating a platform in SA that used the capabilities offered by this technology was expected to encourage greater trade.
It also provided a potential tool to combat theft and tackle the abuse of potentially habit-forming drugs such as codeine, he said.
The Pharmaceutical Task Group, an industry association for drug manufacturers, said the SA pharmaceutical industry supported digital solutions aimed at improving track-and-trace capabilities for medicines across the entire value chain.
“This is important not only from the perspective of mitigating the risk of substandard and fake products, but equally in terms of ensuring patient safety,” said Stavros Nicolaou of the Pharmaceutical Task Group.
“Track and trace is one component of ensuring the integrity of the value chain, strengthening the capabilities by regulatory and enforcement agencies is the other,” he said.
Update: November 13 2024
This story was updated to include comment from the Pharmaceutical Task Group.
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