Industry research conducted by SEA Vision and Zenith Technology found technology to be the greatest barrier to serialisation success, cited by 28% of respondents.
Companies across the pharmaceutical supply chain have been preparing for new regulations in the US and Europe.
As the industry considers the implications of the European Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), one quarter of respondents rated understanding global serialisation requirements as the biggest challenge they face.
In addition, 14% are most concerned by the tight deployment timescales, while 12% believe that resourcing the deployment of serialisation systems and processes is the biggest barrier to compliance.
Other cited challenges include establishing lifecycle support for their systems (7%) and selecting an implementation partner (7%).
Commenting on the research, serialisation director at SEA Vision US Carlos Machado said: "Preparing for serialisation is a complex task and it is clear that the challenges that companies must overcome are wide ranging.
"Technology selection and implementation is key to project success, and flexibility and scalability are important factors to consider when selecting a serialisation solution that is built for the future.
"Given the multiple technical and logistical challenges associated with implementing a solution, reputable providers should be able to demonstrate a concrete track record of working across varying global serialisation architectures. We expect to see a growing reliance on third party support providers over the coming months as many pharmaceutical manufacturers lack the internal resource and expertise to face the challenge of serialization head on."
In 2016, SEA Vision and Zenith Technologies formed a global partnership to support pharmaceutical companies with the impending challenge of installing and integrating serialisation across drug manufacturing sites.
The collaboration brings together Italian-based SEA Vision’s serialisation system along with global Zenith Technologies’ ability to integrate systems and deliver ongoing technical support.