NEW YORK (August 17, 2004) – Secure Symbology, Inc., a supply chain services company, announced the release of its patent-pending Electronic Sequence Code (ESC) system, an alternative to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

The company is initially targeting the pharmaceutical sector with ESC, which can provide immediate track, trace, anti-counterfeiting and electronic pedigree capabilities throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Mimicking the future potential of RFID, the ESC uses serialized 2D composite bar codes to encode individual product information in a very small footprint that can be applied on individual unit-dose drug products or any subsequent packaging level at current production line speeds, the company said.

The ESC system provides individual product serialization benefits without the infrastructure, middleware, privacy and security concerns linked with RFID, the company said, adding the costs associated with ESC are “minimal” because there is no need for software or facility re-tooling by the wholesale, end retailer or institutional user.