Connected products platform: authentication, compliance and ePI

Next week the pharma industry meets in Milan, and ForgeStop will be there with real product, live demos and the team behind our connected products platform. Find us at Stand 8S27, Hall 8, Fiera Milano, 6 to 8 October 2026.

A single tap on a medicine pack should answer three questions at once: Is it genuine? Is it compliant? What does the person holding it need to know right now? Come and ask them yourself.

Opening hours: Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 October, 10:00 to 18:30. Thursday 8 October, 10:00 to 16:00.³

‍

What you will see at Stand 8S27

Everything on the stand is real: in-market pharmaceutical packs with NFC built in, running on the live ForgeStop connected products platform, with the team that builds and deploys it there to walk you through it. Visitors can tap with any smartphone, no app needed.

• Real product in your hand. Commercial pharma packaging with embedded NFC, the same packs in circulation today. Tap one and the phone confirms it against a dynamic, single-use cryptographic response, logged with time and place.
• Tamper detection, live. Open a tamper-enabled pack, tap it again and watch the result change, with the event recorded on the platform as it happens.
• ePI in four markets at once. Four phones show the same pack in four markets. Trigger a recall, a leaflet update or a counterfeit alert and watch each screen respond in its own language and for its own market.
• Dual-frequency track and trace. Each pack carries one identity, read at pallet distance over UHF and by a phone tap over NFC, making diversion and grey-market movement visible.
• The full platform, end to end. A guided presentation of the ForgeStop connected products platform, from encoding at production through content and ePI management to live tap analytics, mapping and alerts.
• The team behind it. The ForgeStop team is on the stand all three days to work through your pack formats, markets and timelines.

👉 Related reading: The Connected-Product Layer: GS1, Traceability, ePI in One Tap to a Full Digital Experience: how one tap resolves identity, traceability and regulated product information without asking the patient to install anything or the manufacturer to run three separate systems.

‍

Why these three, and why now

Authentication, compliance and product information have often sat in separate budgets, with separate vendors. They are now converging on the pack.

In Europe, the EMA, the Heads of Medicines Agencies and the European Commission published a draft roadmap for electronic product information on 20 March 2026. It schedules voluntary ePI go-live for vaccines and oncology products in the second half of 2026, with all centrally authorised products to follow, in line with the new pharmaceutical legislation.¹

In the US, DSCSA enhanced drug distribution security requirements now apply to manufacturers, repackagers, wholesale distributors and large dispensers. On 6 August 2026, the FDA extended the exemption for small dispensers to 27 November 2027.² Interoperable, package-level data exchange is no longer a future state for most of the chain.

👉 Related reading: The ePI Roadmap Is Here: What Pharma Manufacturers Must Do Before Q4 2026: a practical checklist for teams working out what ePI requires of their labelling, artwork and content operations, and in what order.

‍

Double finalist, one tag

ForgeStop is a finalist in two CPHI Pharma Awards 2026 categories: Digital Transformation, and Innovation in Drug Delivery, Devices and Packaging (a joint entry with EM Microelectronic). Winners are announced on the opening evening, 6 October at 18:30, Supply and Formulation Excellence Theater, Hall 2.

Both entries rest on the same connected tag. Stop by Stand 8S27 before or after the ceremony and tap it for yourself.

👉 Related reading: Two Categories, One Tap: ForgeStop Is a Double Finalist at the CPHI Pharma Awards 2026: why the same submission reads as packaging innovation to one judging panel and digital transformation to another.

‍

Nothing on the line gets rebuilt

Adding NFC does not disrupt the packaging line.

Existing labels convert. The same applicators run them. The chip embeds during lamination or inside the tamper-evident seal, adding less than 0.3 mm. Artwork and line speed stay as they are.

Bring your pack format to the stand and we will show you where the tag goes.

👉 Related reading: A New Era of RFID in Healthcare: What's Actually Changing on the Pharma Package: why dual frequency changes the economics of pharma tagging for teams already running UHF in the warehouse and nothing at all on the pack.

‍

Who should stop by

• Packaging development and engineering teams planning 2027 artwork and line changes
• Regulatory and labelling leads working out what ePI means for their content operations
• Serialization and supply chain teams looking past DSCSA and FMD compliance toward visibility
• Brand protection leads who want item-level proof on every pack
• Commercial and patient engagement teams who want the pack to keep working after the sale
• Converters, label printers and integrators looking to add connected labels to their offer

‍

Book time at the stand

The stand gets busy around the awards evening. Book a 20-minute ePI readiness session in advance and we will have demos ready for your markets, product category and pack format. If you are not travelling to Milan, we will walk you through the same demos remotely.

Book your 20-minute session at Stand 8S27 →

Protect. Connect. Experience.

Sources

1. European Medicines Agency, Electronic product information (ePI) and ePI implementation roadmap (draft). Draft roadmap first published 20 March 2026.
2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, DSCSA Exemptions for Small Business Dispensers Until November 27, 2027, issued 6 August 2026; Waivers and Exemptions Beyond the Stabilization Period.
3. CPHI Milan, event information. Hours may vary by pass type. Awards: CPHI Pharma Awards.