Reading between the RFID lines

As California's e-pedigree requirements draw ever nearer, drug companies are scrambling to figure out how to meet the requirements. Backers have long touted the advantages of radio frequency identification technology. In one typical report, Micoh, a company that secures RFID tags, reported that 95% of respondents to a survey it conducted identified RFID as the ideal solution to protect pharmaceutical integrity. Still, according to a report from TheTimes of London, GlaxoSmithKline, which had been one of the leading proponents of RFID, is reconsidering its plans to expand the use of RFID tags to combat counterfeiting. "The question is whether it is a valid technology," a GSK spokesman told the Times. "Is it a technology that could be applied to a significant part of the business?" Another spokesman later said that the company was still testing RFID and had not given up on the technology. GSK has begun to include RFID tags for Trizivir (abacavir/lamivudine/zidovudine), an HIV drug.

View Full Article