Fresenius Kabi is introducing smart labels for a range of essential medications used in hospitals. The new labels, which feature embedded radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, will be introduced this year for medications commonly used in the operating room, with the first product launching in September.

Fresenius Kabi is a producer of generic injectable and infused medications offered in vials, bags and prefilled syringes. Fresenius Kabi prefilled syringes and vials will be the first presentations featured as part of the new +RFID portfolio from the company. 

“The introduction of Fresenius Kabi smart labels using RFID-enabled technology is an important addition to our pharmaceutical portfolio,” said John Ducker, president and CEO of Fresenius Kabi USA.  “Inventory management is a high priority for hospitals, especially in the current environment. This combination of smart technology with the comprehensive range of our anesthesia and analgesia portfolio is designed to answer our customers’ call to make it easier to assure that the right products are in the right places at the right time.” 

Fresenius Kabi +RFID medicines will feature a high-performance RFID tag embedded in the label that contains the relevant data to immediately identify, locate and manage inventory. All necessary product information is accessible from the tag, which enables an interoperable environment without the need for complicated data-sharing interfaces. The technology also enables item-level serialization of each Fresenius Kabi +RFID product.

Fresenius Kabi will adhere to GS1 global standards for RFID (www.gs1.org/standards/epc-rfid), which are used around the world to support pharmaceutical product identification, supply chain efficiency and improved data accuracy. Fresenius Kabi will be the first pharmaceutical company to embed medication identification data into the RFID tag following GS1 open, technology independent, global standards that permit full interoperability and compatibility.