Security: You Either Get It or You Don’t

RFID tackles the increase in counterfeit drugs

by Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx

For many years, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been concerned about the increasing incidence of counterfeit drugs in the U.S., including some reaching patients through the legitimate supply chain. It issued a seminal report called, “Combating Counterfeit Drugs” in February 2004. The report suggested tightening up procedures and, in particular, introducing RFID even on the smallest individual drug containers. The result of such actions was not to create another artifact that is tough to copy, like a hologram or chemical taggant, but rather something that permitted frequent automated checking of the origin and history of the item. The FDA calls this “pedigree” and the key to it is providing unique, secure identification codes on every item established at manufacture, these being recorded unalterably in an RFID label, on or in the item. This is called mass serialization.