Avery Dennison, a global leader in materials science and digital identification solutions, is partnering with Controlant, a leader in the digital transformation of pharma supply chains, to drive real-time, end-to-end visibility and support sustainability initiatives in the pharma industry.
The partnership sees Avery Dennison bring expertise in digital ID technology, advanced R2R manufacturing at a global scale, and commercial reach to support this innovative solution. AD leads the design and manufacture of a range of IoT devices and has collaborated with Controlant to bring to market the Saga Card, which consists of multiple components including a cellular modem with LTE-M and NB-IoT (narrowband IoT), an integrated nuSIM, a zinc-based battery, and sensors.
Saga Card
The Saga Card is an advanced, compact, energy-efficient monitoring device that extends visibility further into the pharma supply chain. When combined with Controlant’s Aurora cloud platform, the device provides real-time inventory visibility at country, region, and city levels to pharma companies, packaging providers and logistics companies serving the pharma industry. The device generates data as medicines cross multiple handover points in the journey to the patient, making it easier for pharma companies to monitor and control inventories and reduce waste.
Gisli Herjolfsson, CEO and co-founder of Controlant, says: “With $35 billion lost in the pharmaceutical industry every year due to failures in temperature-controlled logistics, the benefits of end-to-end visibility into the flow of medicines and vaccines down to the unit level creates an incredible opportunity to revolutionise how the pharma supply chain operates. Saga Card has been developed in collaboration with our consortium partners including Avery Dennison, and will have a significant impact on minimising waste, ensuring patient safety, and bringing us closer to zero-waste pharma supply chains.”
End-to-end supply chain visibility
Barbara van Rymenam, senior director of healthcare at Avery Dennison, adds: “The pharma industry has long lacked an effective real-time, end-to-end supply chain visibility solution. Due to the highly regulated and complex supply network, industry adoption of new technologies is typically slow. These parameters call for a specific set of knowledge and expertise to bring a solution to the market that ticks all the boxes. The new IoT device extends the visibility to the point of care or the patient by tracking the product on the unit or case level, addressing the needs of the dynamic cold chain market where selecting the right solutions is crucial based on the value, urgency, and requirements of the medicines being shipped.”