Work is underway to ensure every medicine in the country has a unique identifier with a proper barcode. This will be a foundation of the country’s fight against falsified and substandard medicines.

Substandard and falsified medicines represent a real and growing risk to patient safety. The sheer complexity of the pharmaceutical supply chain makes it a difficult issue to stamp out. At best, any patients who ultimately use a substandard or falsified medicine will find it does not treat their condition. At worst, these products can cause actual harm.

In Ethiopia, a national study conducted in 2013 suggested 7.8% of medicines in the country were substandard, meaning they failed to meet quality standards and specifications. Various data since then has also identified products which are falsified, meaning they deliberately misrepresent their identity, composition or source.

A successful pilot with Covid-19 vaccines has helped lay the ground for pharmaceutical traceability for all drugs by 2024.

The arrival of vaccinations against Covid-19 represented a big step forward in managing the pandemic. Countries around the world have been seeking ways to easily and constantly monitor the amount of vaccine available to citizens, to ensure efficient and fair distribution of these medicines.

As a relatively new treatment – with side effects and efficacy still being closely tracked – it is also important to know which batches of which medicines are where, not least in case of recall.

Peter O’Hallaran, ACT Health CIO, is explaining us what has been the ACT Health response to Covid-19 crisis. Hear how they were able to apply quickly the GS1 standards to speed up testing in Australia and protect their community.

In this presentation from the GS1 Global Forum, you will hear about Ken Legins (Chief Supply Chain Strenghtening Centre at UNICEF) about the Global trust Repository and the importance that barcoding is playing there and how it supports country traceability journey.

Hear Deloitte’s Partner Hanno Ronte’s perspective on how to secure trust in a global supply chain. Hanno addressed that speech at the GS1 Global Forum in February 2022. He’s talking about the definition of collaboration for Vaccine development, the last mile delivery challenge in remote area, the importance of standards and serialization and the need to build global an local crisis communication network.

Hear about the Fight the Fakes Alliance on the burden of falsified medicines in general and Covid-19 vaccines specifically and the global public threat they represent.

• Andrea Vassalotti, Vice-Chair, Fight the Fakes Alliance

Listen to Mike Meakin, VP Global Quality Regulatory & Compliance at DHL, to understand what DHL did to create and optimize its supply chain for the pandemic tackling the challenges to distribute billions of vaccines to countries with vastly varying climates and logistical capabilities.

• Mike Meakin, Vice President Global Quality Regulatory & Compliance, DHL Supply Chain, UK