Coding and marking specialist Domino Printing Sciences has been praised by Sharp Packaging Services for helping the company to meet crucial technology and serialisation challenges. Sharp, a global leader in contract packaging and part of UDG Healthcare, provides unique and often complex commercial and clinical packaging solutions to the pharmaceutical industry.
Impending industry regulations focused on patient safety and traceability, including government legislation such as the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) in Europe and the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) in North America, call for packaging companies like Sharp to ensure code printing and identification standards are of the highest quality in order for products to be serialised and authenticated.
When it comes to expiration dates, barcodes and customer information, our print quality must be of the highest standard
Domino’s D-series and Bitjet printers have been seamlessly integrated into Sharp’s serialisation system, which according to Sharp has allowed them the flexibility and ability to print high quality lot number and expiration dates, as well as packaging information that meets tight industry regulations, onto a variety of substrates. 'The printing component side of our business is strong here,' says John Mayer, Director of Technology at Sharp. 'When it comes to expiration dates, barcodes and customer information, our print quality must be of the highest standard in order to meet the new stringent regulations.'
Sharp claims its partnership with Domino has been instrumental in dealing with rising counterfeit challenges over the past few years. 'Seven years ago we were challenged by a very unique product need in the marketplace,' explains Rick L. Seibert, Sharp’s Vice President, Project Management and Technology Services.
'The product had a high potential to be counterfeited and sold on the black market. Due to this, the brand that held responsibility for that product wanted a unique marking or some means of tracking their product – and to respond to this we have to make sure we work with the most technically competent and most passionate companies in the industry. The only company that was able to do that for us was Domino with the Bitjet.'
The integration of Domino printers with Sharp’s serialisation system has enabled the company to offer a range of barcode technologies to fit its client’s needs. Sharp has made between 1.5 to 1.7 billion impressions using this Domino capability over the past seven years, stating Domino’s equipment has never let them down throughout the entire project lifecycle.
'What sets Domino apart from its competitors is its willingness to work with us, not only on the immediate requirements we have for serialisation compliance, but with other challenges not just related to printing and optimising our systems, such as emerging markets,' Seibert says.
By working in partnership, we have been able to continue to find solutions as legislations develop
'We’ve been able to meet our technology challenges by partnering with Domino,' concludes Seibert. 'By working in partnership, we have been able to continue to find solutions as legislations develop - by migrating from Domino’s Bitjet printers to the D-series and beyond, for example. We believe by embracing technology and making a significant investment, we can stand alone in being able to deliver those solutions on behalf of our customers.'
Craig Stobie, Head – Global Life Sciences team at Domino says: 'Our partnership with Sharp is providing innovative solutions for hundreds of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Domino values successful collaborations like the one with Sharp, which keep businesses up to speed with changing industry regulations and ensure medicines within the EU are protected from the increasing global threat of counterfeiting.'
Mark Shaffer, Life Sciences Business Development Manager in North America, adds: 'Our partnership with Sharp is a perfect example of our global commitment to our multinational customers. We’ve been able to leverage our experiences in North America with DQSA into Europe for FMD, which allows Sharp to enjoy unsurpassed service and support that is consistent across the globe.'
