Representation of the Saga Card from Controlant

End-to-end visibility in pharmaceutical supply chains

Controlant’s smart IoT device with a built-in SIM can provide medication manufacturers with an unprecedented insight into their supply chains.

“With our new Saga Card we are extending visibility in the supply chain from production to the patient.”

Gunnar Sigurdsson, Product Manager at Controlant

3 steps to a successful IoT Use Case

Challenge

Transportation of pharmaceutical products is subject to strict requirements. Above all, the cold chain must be strictly maintained. If medications have to be discarded, this translates to large financial losses for the pharmaceutical industry. When the supply chain is interrupted, medications arrive late, which impacts the patient. Companies lacking visibility in the supply chain need to create large safety stocks, further increasing financial and environmental costs.

Solution

Provider Controlant, in partnership with Deutsche Telekom and a range of other partners, developed a monitoring solution based on the Internet of Things (IoT). The Saga Card fits into a carton or even a single packet of medications. It can provide detailed location and temperature data throughout the transport route. Even opening the packaging is registered. The slender device incorporates a software-defined Telekom nuSIM. This IoT-version of an iSIM uses Telekom’s worldwide, energy-efficient NB-IoT and LTE-M networks for data transmission to Controlant’s cloud platform.

Customer benefit

Controlant’s new monitoring device can follow the path of medication from production to the patient and brings end-to-end visibility into pharmaceutical supply chains. It provides real-time data and notifications about location and condition even on the last mile, for example in-time recognition of interruptions in the cold chain and of medications being opened. The Saga Card brings an enormous reduction in waste; large safety reserves are no longer needed.

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