Advanco Opens New Office in Singapore
The Asia-Pacific location is expected to provide serialization solutions for counterfeit medication entering the pharma supply chain.
In order to meet customer demand, advanco, a pharmaceutical track-and-trace solutions provider, is opening an office in Singapore to assist the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, joining the locations in Brussels, Belgium; Cologne, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; London, UK; San Francisco, CA; Princeton, NJ; Singapore, and Sofia, Bulgaria.1
This decision comes at a time in which counterfeit medications continue to flood the supply chain. As a result, governments are requiring that pharma manufacturers initiate serialization solutions to counteract the bad actors.
According to advanco, data predicts that approximately 80% of countries requires some form of serialization. There has been increase in adoption spanning multiple APAC countries, including South Korea and China. South Korea requires that designated drugs and prescription drugs have serial numbers in a GS1-128 code, while China mandates that a proprietary 20-character drug electronic administration code (DEA Code/eCode) be used.
Currently, Herbie Leung is the CEO of the APAC region, providing 16 years of leadership experience in the IT services field, including as the APAC CEO of Atos. He also worked with in various leadership roles with Schlumberger Oilfield over the course of 28 years.
The business operations director of the region is Violet Chua, who brings to the table business operations, business and SAP consulting, business operations, human resources, marketing and communications, and experience with managing global organizations’ cross-border teams.
All of advanco’s products will be resold across the APAC region exclusively by SGV, a Herbie Leung-owned company.
“Serialization and automation services are expected to experience a surge in demand over the coming years, largely because of the global adoption of complex pharmaceutical regulations to combat the grave threat of counterfeit medicines. The opening of the APAC office will complement advanco’s existing operations across the US and EMEA and play a significant role in meeting the regulatory demands demanded by the pharma and life sciences sectors, both globally and across the APAC region itself,” said Alf Goebel, CEO of advanco, who has also written for Pharmaceutical Commerce, most recently in the October 2023 issue.2 “ … The year 2024 is set to be a pivotal year, both for the serialization solutions sector and for advanco itself, and I look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.”
References
1. Advanco Opens APAC Office as Mandatory Global Serialization Regulations Increase Across the Life Sciences Sector. advanco. News release. March 12, 2024. Accessed March 13, 2024. https://www.advanco.com/advanco-opens-apac-office-as-mandatory-global-serialization-regulations-increase-across-the-life-sciences-sector/
2. Goebel A. Counterfeit Meds: Fighting the Forgers. Pharmaceutical Commerce. September 28, 2023. https://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/view/counterfeit-meds-fighting-the-forgers
