On October 6, 2026, at the CPHI Celebration in Milan, ForgeStop and EM Microelectronic received the CPHI Pharma Award for Drug Delivery, Devices and Packaging Innovation. The joint entry, Secure Connected Packaging for Pharmaceutical Track-and-Trace and Authentication, was selected by an independent panel of industry experts from a field of five finalists.¹

The award reports a result. This post explains what the judges were looking at: how a pharmaceutical pack gets a cryptographic identity on the production line, and why that matters for anyone running a packaging operation today.

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What the judges recognized

The entry brings together two capabilities that normally live in separate systems. EM Microelectronic's dual-frequency chip can be read by UHF RAIN RFID readers across cases and pallets, and by any NFC smartphone at the pharmacy counter. ForgeStop's connected products platform activates each chip on the production line as a tamper-evident InfoTap® smart label, binds it to a serialised digital identity and verifies it in real time.

The result is one tag that carries a product from the packaging line, through the warehouse and distribution, to the patient's hand. Every read along the way produces unit-level data: which pack, where, when, and whether the seal has been opened.

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How it works on a real line

The chip arrives embedded in a standard label or tamper-evident seal, adding less than 0.3 mm of thickness. The existing applicator places it. BatchMaker™ encodes each tag with its unique identity as the pack passes, at line speed. From then on, a phone tap or a UHF read confirms the pack is genuine and logs the event.

Nothing on the line gets rebuilt. Same applicators, same label stock, same throughput. The upgrade happens inside the label, not around it.

👉 Related reading: Authentication Is Just the Beginning: How NFC + RFID Makes the Entire Pharma Supply Chain Smarter and Safer: how NFC for the patient tap and UHF RFID for bulk warehouse reads work together from production to dispensing, including flagged unauthorised removals and links to warehouse and ERP systems.

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Why printed codes are not enough

A printed QR code or 2D barcode is an image. Serialisation under the EU Falsified Medicines Directive and the US DSCSA gives every pack a unique number, which is the right foundation. The number is still printed, though, and a printed number can be photographed and reprinted onto counterfeit stock. The copy then scans as valid because it is a faithful reproduction.

A secure chip works differently. Every tap produces a new signed value, which the platform checks against the pack's identity on the server. A copied tag repeats a value it has already used, and a repeated value is flagged. The persistent identifier is never exposed to the phone, so the public interface gives a counterfeiter nothing to copy.

👉 Related reading: QR Code vs NFC for Brand Protection: What's Best in 2026?: printed QR codes are cheap and work with any camera, which makes them ideal for reach. They cannot prove an item is genuine. The post sets out where each technology belongs.

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Built with EM Microelectronic

The chip and the platform were designed to work together. EM Microelectronic, a Swatch Group company, builds the dual-frequency silicon. ForgeStop builds the software that turns it into a deployable product: line-speed encoding, a central dashboard for products and batches, and the verification experience a patient or pharmacist sees after the tap.

“Pharmaceutical packaging needs an identity that cannot simply be photographed and reprinted. Pairing our dual-frequency secure chip with ForgeStop's platform gives each pack a verifiable identity from the production line to the patient's hand, readable by logistics systems and by any NFC smartphone. This award confirms that the industry is ready for it.”
Tom Racette, Sr. Director Market Development, EM Microelectronic

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From award to production

The judges rewarded something already running. The technology is in commercial pharmaceutical production, including at IFA Celtics in Mexico, the first pharmaceutical company in that market to adopt NFC authentication, and in premium spirits.

ForgeStop was also shortlisted in the Digital Transformation category for the broader connected products platform. That award went to Evonik. Both shortlists rested on the same tag, judged from opposite ends.

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What comes next

The same tap that confirms a pack is genuine can open its electronic product information. In the EU, the European Medicines Agency published its draft ePI implementation roadmap in March 2026 and its guidance for centrally authorised products in September 2026. The roadmap sets phased, voluntary go-lives for centrally authorised products from Q4 2026, with vaccines and oncology medicines first.²

A pack that already carries a verifiable digital identity is ready to carry the leaflet too, in the language of the market and always in its current version.

👉 Related reading: ePI Roadmap 2026: Pharma Compliance Checklist Before Go-Live: a six-point checklist for manufacturers ahead of the first ePI go-lives: FHIR content, package linking, hosting, multilingual delivery, smart-label infrastructure and audit trails.

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Talk to ForgeStop about secure connected packaging →

Protect. Connect. Experience.

Sources

1. Pharmaceutical Technology, Winners of the 2026 CPHI Pharma Awards Announced, 6 October 2026. Winners across 15 categories were announced by Informa Markets at the CPHI Celebration in Milan.
2. European Medicines Agency, Electronic product information (ePI) and ePI implementation roadmap (draft). Draft roadmap first published 20 March 2026; centralised-procedure submission guidance first published 4 September 2026.