Code 32 barcode generator

Code 32 barcode, also known as the Pharmaceutical Code, is a system adopted by the Italian Ministry of Health to code and identify pharmaceutical products.

This system is essential to ensure uniform and accurate drug information management, thus facilitating traceability, distribution, and quality control.

It is used in various areas of health care and pharmacology.

Advantages:

• Traceability: Allows products to be tracked along the distribution chain, from the manufacturer to the distributor to the point of sale or pharmacy.
• Cataloging: Facilitates information management in pharmaceutical databases, making product identification and catalogation easier.
• Quality and Safety Control**: Helps ensure that drugs are distributed and used safely, preventing the distribution of counterfeit or non-compliant products.

It represents a fundamental element in the pharmaceutical product management system in Italy. Thanks to the precise structure and conversion to base 32, it offers an effective way to uniquely identify each drug package, improving safety and efficiency in medication management.

Code Structure

The code for medicinal products for human use consists of nine total digits, structured as follows:

1. Seven initial digits: These digits specifically identify the packaging type of each medicinal specialty. Each combination represents a unique product, distinguishing between different formulations, strengths, or pharmaceutical forms of a drug.
2. Initial digit zero: This digit is added to the beginning of the numerical code, bringing the total to eight digits. Its purpose is to ensure uniform code length, facilitating processing and integration into computer systems.
3. Control character: The ninth digit is a control character, used to verify the integrity of the code. This character helps prevent transcription or typing errors, ensuring that the code entered is correct.

Technical specifications

After forming the nine-digit numeric code, it is converted to a six-character alphanumeric format using base 32. Base 32 is a numbering system that uses 32 symbols to represent numbers. In this context, the symbols used are:

• The ten decimal digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• The letters of the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, with the exclusion of the letters A, E, I, O, to avoid possible confusion with the digits and to reduce the risk of reading or transcription errors.

The end result is a six-character alphanumeric code, unique for each drug package.