PPN

The Pharmacy Product Number (PPN) barcode is a variant of Data Matrix that is used for the distribution and marking of health care and pharmaceutical products worldwide. It was developed in accordance with the 2011/62/EU directive to harmonize the separate coding systems that the countries in the European Union use, and it also accommodates international code systems, such as the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN).

PPN encodes the following elements:

• Data Identifier (DI) of 9N (this identifies the barcode as PPN)

• Product Registration Agency Code (a two-digit prefix that identifies the coding system that the Registered Product Number is based on)

• Registered Product Number (the product information, which is encoded according to the specified Product Registration Agency coding system)

• Check digits

PPN is defined in the Pharmacy Product Number - Technical Specifications document that is published by Informationsstelle für Arzneispezialitäten (IFA) GmbH.