Norway track-and-trace for Rx drugs

Research scientists at Norway's SINTEF Group, a technology R&D firm which supports projects with 2,000 Scandinavian firms, has developed the AUTOMED, a control dashboard for the pharmaceuticals industry. This enables all stages of the supply chain (pharmacies, wholesalers and manufacturers) to locate stocks and allows temporary shortages to be anticipated and which neighboring outlets may have a supply of a drug.

When a package is scanned at the pharmacy checkout, information is simultaneously transferred to the wholesaler about the remaining stocks on the shelves, which in turn results in a stock order, SINTEF explained.

"For a pharmaceutical manufacturer on the other hand, in the worst case it can take three months before they are able to supply products that are out of stock," says Heidi Dreyer at SINTEF Technology and Society. "For essential medicines, such as with the bird flu and severe influenza epidemics, there can be advantages in cutting this time down," she added.