Pressemitteilung (Deutsch) [PDF]
Berlin/Cologne, 27. September 2022
Medicines for refugees from Ukraine are part of the urgently needed donations. The problem: The package inserts enclosed with the medicines are written in the language of the respective target market and thus in most cases not readable for Ukrainian citizens, which can result in the risk of taking the wrong medication.
A joint initiative of EFPIA – European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, GS1 Germany and GoodsTag to overcome these language barriers. The offer is initially available in Poland. Ukrainians can now use their smartphones to scan the 2D GS1 DataMatrix code on pharmaceutical packaging using the “Scan Matrix” app. They will then be redirected to the electronic package insert (ePIL) in their language, regardless of which language the package insert accompanying the medicine is based on.
Crucial to this solution, in addition to the app, is the so-called GS1 Resolver service. Based on the GoodsTag Smart Products platform for smart consumer goods, GS1 Germany provides this service free of charge to all pharmaceutical companies participating in the EFPIA initiative. The new global GS1 standard GS1 Digital Link is used for language-specific information provisioning. With this new standard, different information about physical units can be flexibly made available to consumers as well as all partners in the supply chain via a single link. The linked information can be adapted at any time without having to renew the data carrier and its content. This opens up many new possibilities to extend the static information on the physical unit online. The special feature: if the content is available in diverse languages, the language of the smartphone is detected during the scan and the information is played out in the corresponding language.
So far, EFPIA’s initiative has focused on providing information in Ukrainian. If the pharmaceutical sector exploits the full potential of the new GS1 standard in the future, a simple scan of the packaging code (here: GS1 DataMatrix), which is already legal worldwide, will make the information and extended services required in each case accessible. Using GS1 Digital Link, this is done precisely for the respective application and in the required language
All pharmaceutical companies can participate in the current “Ukraine Help Project” by providing Ukrainian ePILs. Currently, more than 300 ePILs from leading pharmaceutical manufacturers are available. The first companies to participate in the project are Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnsen & Johnsen, Merck, Novo Nordisk Ukraine, Pfizer and Roche Polska.
Oliver Schwarz, Managing Director Goodstag: “It makes our team proud to be able to support this aid initiative of the pharmaceutical industry together with GS1 and with our platform for Smart Product Services. Without the state-of-the-art internet-enabled GS1 standards, the project would not have been possible. Making user-specific product information available on the physical product via smartphone will very soon become a normal part of social responsibility for companies.”
Thomas Fell, Lead GS1 Germany: “We are pleased that we were able to support this good initiative quickly and unbureaucratically here together with our partner GoodsTag. This initiative also shows how much we can achieve together and how important cross-company and in this case even cross-industry cooperation is.”
Speaking about the initiative, Nathalie Moll, Director General of EFPIA, said, “Over seven million displaced Ukrainians have entered the EU, including patients in need of ongoing medical treatment. With the electronic product information brochure in Ukrainian, the pharmaceutical industry aims to meet the needs of these patients and help them access healthcare in their own language.”
Scan Matrix App
GoodsTag – Things that count
GoodsTag is the developer and provider of an enterprise cloud platform for smart products services for any type of consumer and products. The platform enables manufacturers, brands and retailers to create and maintain personalized and sustainable connections between their physical products and people along the entire product lifecycle – from distributors to end customers.
GoodsTag is the Solution Partner for the new GS1 Germany Digital Link Resolver service, offering a combination of Cloud Infrastructure, IoT Solution and Smart Products Software as a Service (SaaS) around GS1 standards. www.goodstag.com
GS1 Germany – It all started with a simple beep.
In 1974, a barcode was scanned for the first time in a supermarket. This was the beginning of automated checkout – and the start of the GS1 success story. The machine-readable GS1 barcode with the GTIN included is now the universal standard in the global exchange of goods and is scanned six billion times a day on products. GS1 standards are the global language for efficient and secure business processes, valid across company boundaries and continents. As part of a worldwide network, we work with our customers and partners to develop market-driven, forward-looking solutions that directly impact their business success. Today, two million companies from over 20 industries worldwide use this language to uniquely identify products, locations and assets, to capture relevant data and to share it with business partners. GS1 – The Global Language of Business. www.gs1.de
Press Contact
GS1 Germany GmbH
Andreas Finke
Corporate Communications
T: 0221 94714-526
E: [email protected]
www.gs1.de
Press Contact
GoodsTag GmbH
Heiner Schaumann
Corporate Communications
T: 030 25762644
E: [email protected]
www.goodstag.com
