Purdue Pharma Efficiently Protects Their High-Value OxyContin® Product Using RFID Technology

Purdue obtains tags from their suppliers (including Impinj Monza™ tag chip-powered tags), prescreened for quality and preprogrammed with SGTIN-96 codes. These rolls of labels require no special equipment or handling and bottles proceed down the packaging line in the normal process.

After filling, the bottles approach the first item-level RFID read point, powered by an Impinj® Speedway® reader and Mini-Guardrail reader antenna. Here, the bottles undergo a series of challenges they must pass to avoid rejection at the end of the line:

• The static information at the front of the SGTIN-96 must match data in their recipe-driven system
• The tag must respond within roughly 500 milliseconds (Purdue runs approximately 100 bottles per minute)
• The tag must respond above a preset received signal strength indication (RSSI) level to avoid sending weak tags into the case reading process

If tagged bottles pass all challenges, they are shrink-wrapped into packages of six bottles, eight of which are then manually loaded into a case. The case is sealed, and an RFID shipper label, programmed with the case-level product EPC number is applied.