Originally Published PMPN
May 2004
EDITORIAL
Focusing Drug Makers’ Scopes on RFID Hopes
When it comes to track-and-trace technologies, I thought the shakeup that FDA’s bar code mandate is causing is as big as they come. I was wrong. Implementing radio-frequency identification (RFID) seems like it will be even bigger.
I don’t wish to make light of bar coding. Applying these codes to every drug packaging size supplied to hospitals certainly has its challenges, and many in industry are currently grappling with the trials of in-line printing and reading. And, after all, bar coding is law; RFID is not.
But, try as many suppliers currently are, RFID solutions are not as easy a fit for pharmaceutical packaging as bar codes are. Take tag frequency, for instance. Wal-Mart is asking for 915-MHz tags, which are good for reading tags on cases and pallets at a distance. But I am told that frequencies at this level often do not work for liquid products or for items that are housed in packaging with some sort of metal. A sizable number of pharmaceutical products fall into either or both of these groups. Perhaps this is one reason pharmaceutical manufacturers by and large did not meet Wal-Mart’s requirements for Class 2 drugs.
RFID solutions providers seem aware of challenges like these and are working hard at devising systems that pharmaceutical companies can use today. Our news story on page 12 outlines some of their offerings, like RFID-embedded labels from RSI ID Technologies and CCL Label. I am sure we’ll have even more to report in coming issues, because it seems as though every other new product launched these days relates to RFID in some manner.
Some suppliers, such as Tagsys, are offering full product lines. MeadWestvaco is another such supplier. The firm seeks to provide RFID hardware and software as well as services for applying RFID tags to pharmaceutical cartons, bottles, and blister cards, explains Tom Grinnan, vice president of business development, healthcare packaging, at MeadWestvaco.
But Grinnan knows that the pharmaceutical industry is facing some hurdles. “Drug companies need help with quality control and programming,” he says. Much of his firm’s work, therefore, involves preparing software solutions that drug firms can use to write information to tags and to ensure tag quality when reading them.
Since FDA’s interest in RFID is primarily to stem counterfeiting, Grinnan says that his firm is also working on securing unit-level tags on cartons, blisters, and other pharmaceutical packaging. “You don’t want a tag that can be removed—that does little toward anticounterfeiting,” he says.
Security also involves ensuring the integrity of tag information. “Drug companies want to avoid having a drug product reach its destination with altered RFID tag information,” he says. Companies may just want to lock in product information such as Electronic Product Codes, National Drug Codes, lot codes, and expiry dates and not allow others to write to that same tag. For gathering distribution history, MeadWestvaco has developed tracking software that can log a product’s journey.
Grinnan is hopeful that pharmaceutical firms will remember this value proposition when faced with challenges: “RFID gives you real-time inventory control. And, when it comes to retail, it can help make your products readily available to consumers.”
If these points aren’t enough, read FDA’s report, “Combating Counterfeit Drugs,” again. Challenging or not, FDA is hopeful that RFID can play a significant role in protecting the U.S. drug supply.
Daphne Allen
Editor
Copyright ©2004 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
