A select group of clients from the Life Sciences Industry had the opportunity to attend last night, June 22, 2023, the 1st PR Brand Protection, Serialization and Machine Vision Forum organized by Ultimate Solutions and held at the Four Point Sheraton Hotel in Caguas.
The Forum had the purpose of discussing the problem of counterfeiting and smuggling of medicines, which continues to increase mainly due to online sales. In addition to showing how companies with their respective technologies work collaboratively in Puerto Rico to attack this global problem. The following companies were exhibiting their products and solutions: Ultimate Solutions, Systech, Cognex and Rockwell Automation.
This Forum was held because in November 2023 and after 10 years, all parties involved in the supply chain of the Pharmaceutical Industry will have to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). This Act seeks to improve the ability of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect consumers from exposure to drugs that may be counterfeit, stolen, contaminated or harmful.
The Symposium began with the demographer and statistician Raúl Figueroa, who showed during his presentation “World of Counterfeit Drugs: an Informative Perspective” the statistics of counterfeiting and smuggling of medicines in the United States. In addition, the deaths that this has caused in different parts of the world and how the numbers continue to increase despite the efforts of government authorities.
Bill Carpenter, Global Account Manager from Systech, presented “Use Cases of Real World Counterfeiting and Diversion“, taking a real look at counterfeit cases this global company has handled. From the same company, Octavio Rodríguez Perez, Group Product Manager from Systech, showed with his presentation “Systech: on your line, and more!” new solutions to help customers achieve compliance, product safety, resiliency and digital transformation goals. These software solutions provide customers with information to know exactly what is happening at each stage of the product until it reaches the patient.
In the forum, there was also talk about how companies are using Artificial Intelligence from the hardware side to detect problems in the Supply Chain of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Enrique García, Senior Account Sales Engineer from Cognex with his topic “The use of Deep Learning (AI) in Manufacturing Applications” showed several examples of inspections that were previously impossible and are now real thanks to Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning.
Finally, Yoel Rivera, CEO of Ultimate Solutions, discussed the issue of collaboration as the most effective measure to fight against counterfeiting. “The same clients are provoking the collaboration of suppliers that were initially competitors and that are now working as a team to fight against counterfeiting and drug smuggling. In the end, all manufacturers of biopharmaceutical products and medical devices look for QUALITY to guarantee the well-being and life of their patients/clients”, he said.
Ultimate Solutions is developing machinery capable of integrating Systech and Cognex technologies. For clients in the Life Sciences Industry, this means obtaining a team that helps fight counterfeiting and smuggling of medicines that unites the best technologies on the market. At the Forum, customers saw live how these machines work, integrated with Systech and Cognex technologies and integrated by Ultimate Solutions.
