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Updated guidelines expected for pharmaceutical industry’s adoption of RFID

E-Health Trend Watch, August 4, 2006

In early 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Counterfeit Drug Task Force issued a report urging the adoption of radio-frequency identification (RFID) at the unit-of-sale level by 2007. However, the pharmaceutical industry has been slow to adopt the technology. On June 9, the FDA released a new, more vigorous RFID mandate.

The new report recommends that the FDA remove its "hold" on its so-called pedigree act, reinstating the 2007 deadline for those in the pharmaceutical supply chain to implement some form of electronic tracking technology. Globally, drug counterfeiting is a $32 billion per year business, according to the World Health Organization. An estimated 8%-10% of the global medicine supply chain is counterfeit. Currently, only two drug manufacture use RFID, and each with only one product line.

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