This article was originally published by RFID Update.
November 15, 2004—RFID made the front page of the New York Times today with the story about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s official announcement of its pharmaceutical-tagging initiative. As many in the industry are already aware, pharmaceuticals represent a prime item-level tagging opportunity because of their combined high value and high sensitivity to theft and counterfeiting. Even in the face of 20- to 50-cent RFID labels, tagging individual bottles of Viagra, a favorite among counterfeiters, or OxyContin, a popular pain killer often stolen and sold on the black market to abusers, could ultimately save the drug manufacturers money. Counterfeiting, while not as widespread in the U.S. as in other countries, is increasing, and organized crime is getting in the game. The pharmaceutical supply chain vulnerability that is exploited occurs at the wholesaler level, a fragmented and under-policed microindustry consisting of thousands of mom-and-pop shops. The RFID tags will allow pharmacists to more easily verify the legitimacy of a bottle’s contents and history, quickly exposing anything suspect that may have occurred as the bottle passed through wholesalers. (Registration is required to read this article.)
Read the article at nytimes.com
