Nov. 13, 2008 – Paul Fowler of Axway discusses how sensors add to the integrity of pharmaceutical distribution, adding benefits way beyond ePedigree.

Does that mean they are working with sensors, certainly in the case of temperature?

FOWLER: Absolutely. Our products can track and analyze data from sensors for temperature, shock and location. We have all sorts of sensors.

If you look at the progress of bio-pharm in the industry, the supply chain is getting more complicated than just putting aspirin in a box and moving it through the supply chain.

Do you in fact see sensors really on the horizon in the near future in terms of widespread adoption or is it really just here and there at the moment?

FOWLER: Well, I think it is. I think it will be widely adopted in those areas of pharmaceuticals specialty. If you look at the largest growing area in the pharmaceutical space right now it is specialty pharmaceuticals and bio pharmaceuticals. I think it will be widely adopted in those. There is legislature being adopted to make sure that you have complete integrity around those products, the temperature and the location and the quality of the shipment.

So, you see integrity as part of the bigger picture. It is not just the diverting of the products. I understand that in Europe and outside of the United States, diversion is the larger problem than counterfeiting. Can you tell us about that?

FOWLER: Yes, if you look at the model in the rest of the world, U.S. is an open free market, so the price of a product is set by the market demand. In most of the world, governments set the price of a product.

If a manufacturer sells a product in a price controlled market that is low, and someone in that market sells it to another price controlled market that is higher, the manufacturer obviously loses that margin. The distribution agreement says that you can't do that and if someone is breaking those agreements, the manufacturers need a way to be able to verify that the product got to the wrong place and was diverted. Our track and trace module gives these customers the opportunity to do that in multiple ways.

How are you able to do that without E-Pedigree, or is E-Pedigree just being instituted by your customers?

FOWLER: Well, no, actually E-Pedigree is almost totally independent of that. For example, one of our customers is basically sending forensic teams out to various locations in the world. They are picking up products on the shelf, scanning them with the mobile technologies and then going back to our database to verify if this product suppose to be in this marketplace? For example, if a product that was sold to Spain ends up in South Africa, you know that that product was diverted. Then they can go back through the supply chain to identify where that issue occurred.

So, they would be identifying, in the case of let's say a barcode, not only just what the product was, but, the intended locale that it was being sent to essentially.

FOWLER: Right, when it was produced, where it was produced to, where it was suppose to be consumed, where it was last tracked and traced, yes.

And do you, does your software tie this in, not just the manufacturer, but does the retailer get reports or the distributors along the way?

FOWLER: We certainly have the capability to do all of that. In fact, by using our technology, some of our customers are going to provide their trading partners visibility to those exact reports. We are also EPCIS compliant, so that anyone who has a system that does similar type things and follows EPC standards can also exchange information compatibly.