Ru$h to Go Down.....I'll Have Pie to Celebrate!!!!!!

[enceladus]

RFID To Fight Counterfeiting of Viagra, Painkilling Drugs

RFID tags will be added to the impotency drug Viagra and the painkiller
OxyContin, allowing the medicines to be tracked electronically from
production plant to pharmacy. The move is aimed at combating counterfeiting
of drugs.


By Associated Press, InformationWeek
Nov. 15, 2004
URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52601667



The makers of the impotency drug Viagra and the painkiller OxyContin said
Monday they will add radio transmitters to bottles of their pills to fight
counterfeiting.

The technology will allow the medicines to be tracked electronically from
production plant to pharmacy, a development the Food and Drug Administration
said is an important tool to combat the small but growing problem of drug
counterfeiting.

Shipments of OxyContin bottles with the transmitters will begin this week to
two large customers, Wal-Mart and wholesaler H.D. Smith, the drug
manufacturer, Purdue Pharma LP, announced.

Pfizer Inc. plans to start shipping bottles of Viagra with radio frequency
identification, or RFID, by the end of next year, Pfizer spokesman Bryant
Haskins said.

``We're starting with Viagra because it is probably the best-known and one
of the most counterfeited pharmaceutical products,'' Haskins said.

OxyContin is a powerful narcotic that has become a target for drug abusers
who figured out how to use it for a quick, heroin-like high.The new bottles
also should help authorities and the company in its battle against theft of
OxyContin from pharmacies, Purdue Pharma security chief Aaron Graham said.

``If a police officer catches someone with a couple of bottles, we can trace
them back to the pharmacy they were stolen from. That's a huge step
forward,'' Graham said.

Purdue Pharma also will be taking other anti-counterfeiting measures for
OxyContin, including the use of color-shifting inks.

A third pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, said it too will begin
using RFID on one of its products in the next 12 to 18 months.

An FDA report earlier this year concluded that radio transmitters should
lead the way in fighting drug counterfeiting. But the Bush administration
declined to order pharmaceutical companies to adopt the technology or other
measures to combat the problem.

Still, administration officials said they expect widespread use of RFID by
2007.

In the late 1990s, the FDA conducted an average of five investigations of
counterfeit drugs per year. Since 2000, that figure has risen to more than
20 investigations per year. Last year, federal officials stalked counterfeit
versions of Procrit, which helps people with cancer and AIDS combat anemia,
and Lipitor, a cholesterol-busting drug. The fake Lipitor prompted the
recall of more than 150,000 bottles in 2003.

The RFID tags look like ordinary labels but are really computer chips with
antennas wrapped around them. The tag works like a passport, picking up a
notation at each stage of the distribution chain when the chip is activated.
Sensors at distribution centers use radio waves to activate the tags, which
are electronically read and stamped with a record of where they have been.

A counterfeit drug would have no such record.

Federal officials worked through the kinks in a $3 million pilot project
that included pharmaceutical manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co.
and Wyeth and such retailers as CVS Corp. and Rite Aid Corp.

Pfizer shares were up 30 cents at $27.75 in afternoon trading on the New
York Stock Exchange.

[Eyeball Kid]

Post by enceladus
RFID To Fight Counterfeiting of Viagra, Painkilling Drugs
RFID tags will be added to the impotency drug Viagra and the painkiller
OxyContin, allowing the medicines to be tracked electronically from
production plant to pharmacy. The move is aimed at combating counterfeiting
of drugs.
By Associated Press, InformationWeek
Nov. 15, 2004
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52601667
The makers of the impotency drug Viagra and the painkiller OxyContin said
Monday they will add radio transmitters to bottles of their pills to fight
counterfeiting.
The technology will allow the medicines to be tracked electronically from
production plant to pharmacy, a development the Food and Drug Administration
said is an important tool to combat the small but growing problem of drug
counterfeiting.
Shipments of OxyContin bottles with the transmitters will begin this week to
two large customers, Wal-Mart and wholesaler H.D. Smith, the drug
manufacturer, Purdue Pharma LP, announced.
Pfizer Inc. plans to start shipping bottles of Viagra with radio frequency
identification, or RFID, by the end of next year, Pfizer spokesman Bryant
Haskins said.
``We're starting with Viagra because it is probably the best-known and one
of the most counterfeited pharmaceutical products,'' Haskins said.
OxyContin is a powerful narcotic that has become a target for drug abusers
who figured out how to use it for a quick, heroin-like high.The new bottles
also should help authorities and the company in its battle against theft of
OxyContin from pharmacies, Purdue Pharma security chief Aaron Graham said.
``If a police officer catches someone with a couple of bottles, we can trace
them back to the pharmacy they were stolen from. That's a huge step
forward,'' Graham said.
Purdue Pharma also will be taking other anti-counterfeiting measures for
OxyContin, including the use of color-shifting inks.
A third pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, said it too will begin
using RFID on one of its products in the next 12 to 18 months.
An FDA report earlier this year concluded that radio transmitters should
lead the way in fighting drug counterfeiting. But the Bush administration
declined to order pharmaceutical companies to adopt the technology or other
measures to combat the problem.
Still, administration officials said they expect widespread use of RFID by
2007.
In the late 1990s, the FDA conducted an average of five investigations of
counterfeit drugs per year. Since 2000, that figure has risen to more than
20 investigations per year. Last year, federal officials stalked counterfeit
versions of Procrit, which helps people with cancer and AIDS combat anemia,
and Lipitor, a cholesterol-busting drug. The fake Lipitor prompted the
recall of more than 150,000 bottles in 2003.
The RFID tags look like ordinary labels but are really computer chips with
antennas wrapped around them. The tag works like a passport, picking up a
notation at each stage of the distribution chain when the chip is activated.
Sensors at distribution centers use radio waves to activate the tags, which
are electronically read and stamped with a record of where they have been.

So the Bushie Feds will sponsor a law that will make it a crime to peel
off the labels that are on the bottles, won't they?

If they don't do that, then the whole exercise is incredibly stupid, if
not crazy on the face of it. People who steal the bottles will always
be a step ahead of the measures that would make them more vulnerable.
My guess is that the labeling will be expanded to track other goods and
services. After all, we need more people in jail, and we need to feed
the growing security industry.

E. K.

Post by enceladus
A counterfeit drug would have no such record.
Federal officials worked through the kinks in a $3 million pilot project
that included pharmaceutical manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co.
and Wyeth and such retailers as CVS Corp. and Rite Aid Corp.
Pfizer shares were up 30 cents at $27.75 in afternoon trading on the New
York Stock Exchange.