For logistics firm Antares, working in pharma presents challenges — and opportunities

The pharmaceutical industry is New Jersey’s perennial list topper when it comes to measuring what drives the state’s economy, but logistics is never far behind. And, just as often in the Garden State, the two go hand-in-hand. Besides the state’s higher-than-average concentration of drug-dedicated third-party logistics providers, there are a number of little-known players generating big business at the intersection between the pharmaceutical and logistics sectors. It’s particularly due to the rules and regulations governing the movement of medicine that the supply chain for these products is one of the most lucrative, albeit competitive, places to be in logistics. As an example, unlike most products, each pharmaceutical item making its way on a truck-trailer to its destination has to be traceable back to its point of origin. That’s a result of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, which went into effect last year. A change like that brought new demand for a solution offered by Antares Vision, a global company with its national base in Moorestown. The company has started playing a vital role in the now-required verification aspect of logistics for the pharma sector with its serialization tools.