Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories are piloting the use of radio frequency identification technology to track pill bottles, in an effort to stop drug counterfeiting, Forbes reports.
RFID chips can include an identification number as well as the product's expiration date, which could be matched against a drugmaker's database. Unlike previous technology, which only allowed tracking by shipment, RFID enables tracking by bottle.
The technology must be able to simultaneously read the chips on thousands of pill bottles without error, said Byron Bond, who heads Pfizer's trade operations. If one false positive were detected, each bottle would need to be inspected by hand, which would not be an improvement over current bar coding technology, Forbes reports. Consulting firm Accenture is running the pilot.
RFID could also "greatly reduce the cost of monitoring reimportation," said Richard Evans, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. By making the drug supply safer, RFID could make it easer for the U.S. government to safely import cheaper branded medicine from Canada.
However, RFID would not entirely solve the problem of drugs coming from Canada, as not all medications are being shipped in trade packages. "As long as patients are willing to take the risk, I'm not willing to say RFID is a panacea," Bond said (Herper, Forbes, 6/30).