UPM Raflatac and Magellan Technology join forces to tag pharmaceuticals by applying high-speed RFID

(UPM Raflatac, Tampere, March 21, 2006) - UPM Raflatac and Magellan Technology have formed a strategic partnership to address the most challenging aspects of tagging pharmaceuticals by using RFID: high-speed issuing at pharmaceutical manufacturers, reliable identification throughout the supply chain, fighting counterfeit products with security features and dedicated RFID labels. The partnership was announced at Interphex 2006, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing show of the year being held in New York, March 21 - 23.

Due to the rapidly growing demand to tag pharmaceutical products with RFID, companies are facing the limitations of applying today’s available RFID technologies to their existing manufacturing and distribution systems. Magellan’s Phase Jitter Modulation (PJM) RFID technology offers full stacking capabilities with zero separation of RFID tags, a high-speed read and write access to data on tags and a very powerful anti-collision method to rapidly identify large quantities of tagged pharmaceuticals. Writing unique 96 bit identification numbers reliably can be done at speeds of more than 3000 items per minute. Using Magellan’s range of fully shielded 3-axis tunnel readers the identification of tightly packed pharmaceutical items will achieve rates of 200 items per second.

Security features like unique ID, password controlled write access modes and a lock pointer to prevent any future modifications or tampering with the locked memory cells, offer a wide portfolio of functions to implement systems with a higher security against counterfeiting. UPM Raflatac, a leading RFID tag and inlay manufacturer, contributes strong experience to produce and supply high-quality RFID products dedicated to the specific requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. The joint UPM Raflatac and Magellan offering for pharmaceuticals is complemented and supported by existing PJM technology licensees Balogh, Nippon Signal and other members of Team PJM.

“Applying our high-speed PJM technology to tag pharmaceuticals will certainly benefit the industry as it solves most of the aspects of implementing RFID throughout the supply chain,” said Tim Frost, Executive Chairman and CEO of Magellan Technology. “The partnership with UPM Raflatac enables us to bring this technology into the right form factors directly to the users in the pharmaceutical industry”.

"RFID holds an enormous potential in terms of anti-counterfeiting and supply chain management. Our RFID tags and inlays featuring PJM technology help the pharmaceutical industry meet the ePedigree requirements while also improving the efficiency of their supply chain," said Samuli Strömberg, Vice President Marketing at UPM Raflatac's RFID business. "The cooperation with Magellan Technology results in new innovations in our product portfolio designed for the pharmaceutical industry."

For more information, please contact:
Samuli Strömberg, Vice President Marketing, RFID, UPM Raflatac, tel. +358 40 740 9588
Ken Laing, VP Sales and Marketing, Magellan Technology, tel. +61 2 9562 9800

About UPM Raflatac
UPM Raflatac is a world-leading supplier of pressure sensitive labelstock for a wide variety of needs in prime and VIP labeling. In addition, the company is at the global forefront in the development and high-volume production of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and inlays. UPM Raflatac has around 2,300 employees and annual sales of around 1 billion USD. The company has a global service network consisting of 11 factories on five continents and a broad network of terminals and sales offices worldwide. UPM Raflatac is part of UPM, a leading global forest products company with stocks listed on the Helsinki and New York stock exchanges. Further information is available at www.upmraflatac.com.

About Magellan Technology
Magellan Technology Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia, is a technology developer, manufacturer and licensor of advanced read and write 13.56MHz RFID systems. Magellan designs and offers RFID chips, inlets and a complete reader portfolio for Magellan’s Phase Jitter Modulation (PJM) technology, which complies with the International Standard ISO/IEC 18000 Part 3 Mode 2. The PJM technology is more than 10 times faster than other existing HF technologies. PJM products are optimized for applications where many hundreds of tags are stacked tightly or need to be identified reliably in dynamic situations where tags are presented in all orientations. Magellan develops and licenses its PJM technology world wide to interested parties including other manufacturers and system integrators. Further information is available at www.magtech.com.au.