Not only drug, but employee pedigrees (electronic or other) are becoming more important than ever. Yesterday, a local newspaper reported, the pharmaceutical distributor H.D. Smith agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a case involving charges of selling counterfeit and diverted Lipitor. After a three-year investigation, a company employee pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks. No one else in the company was involved, but cases like this show the potential liabilities that drug manufacturers and distributors face today and the need for robust authentication technologies. In our next issue of Pharma Track and Trace and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, we'll be analyzing the issue of material compatibility with RFID, a major technical challenge, with some of the leading experts in the field. Stay tuned.
-AMS
