Cencora solution

RFID Tagging Service

Reduce the expensive busywork of manual tagging.
Available for
  • Health system
  • Pharmacy
Available in
  • US
Related capabilities
  • Hospital and health system solutions
  • Pharmacy solutions

Reading Cencora's RFID-enabled product is easy. Here's how.

We're committed to making inventory management of kits and trays simple for all. Here you'll find all the technical specifications and instructions you need to manage Cencora RFID-enabled product. We'll frequently and publicly update the NDC and batch/lot data to ensure your system can take advantage of Cencora-sourced RFID-enabled products. You won't need costly integrations or complex partnership agreements — just the information on this page.

If you have any questions, please let us know. We'd be glad to help in any way we can. 

Anatomy of a Cencora RAIN RFID tag


Cencora encodes and applies 96-bit RAIN RFID tags to the unit of use as requested by your customer for RFID enablement.

The UII data structure of our AB RAIN RFID tags:

ABC001 01AB 02CD 04FC 000001

  • ABC001: 's 6-digit RAIN Company Identification Number (CIN); This value will always be ABC001
  • 01AB: Hexadecimal AB reference key for the item's NDC code
  • 02CD: Hexadecimal AB reference key for the item's lot number: Note: The lot number reference key must be used with the NDC code reference key to find the specific lot in our cross-reference file. The lot reference key can be the same for two different NDC reference keys.
  • 04FC: Hexadecimal representation of the expiration date measured in days from January 1, 2020. For example, hexadecimal 04FC = decimal 1276. So January 1, 2020 + 1,276 days = June 30, 2023. The expiration date is 06/30/2023.
  • 000001: Hexadecimal serial number for the specific RAIN RFID tag. This is a simple, incrementing, and unique hexadecimal value for serialized identification of the individual product within the larger batch of product with the same NDC, lot, and expiration date. 

Reference key files

Cencora will publish updated cross-reference CSV files that map the AB NDC reference codes and AB lot reference codes to their corresponding manufacturer NDC and lot number values, respectively, on a nightly basis.

Those CSV files only contain data and no column headers or field names. 

Lot reference key file

  • Number of columns: 4

  • Column information

    - AB NDC key (hexadecimal key from the RAIN RFID UII value)

    - Manufacturer NDC code

    - AB lot key (hexadecimal key from the RAIN RFID UII value)

    - Manufacturer lot/batch number

  • Sample data

    - 0005 55150-0180-03 0006 202009080301

    - 0007 63323-0651-02 0001 AM1104B

    - 0008 17478-0542-25 0001 AM1118C

NDC reference key file

  • Number of columns: 2

  • Column information

    - AB NDC key (hexadecimal key from the RAIN RFID UII value)

    - Manufacturer NDC code

  • Sample data

    - 0005 55150-0180-03

    - 0007 63323-0651-02

    - 0008 17478-0542-25

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