Authentication aims to beat counterfeits
A process by which pharmacists could authenticate the origin of products at the time of dispensing is to be tested next year. The aim is to
stop counterfeit or fraudulently imported products being used in the
United Kingdom.
Rob Whewell is managing consultant for life sciences and health care
at PA Consulting, which has developed the authentication process. He
told The Journal that the process will be similar to the way in which
credit cards are authenticated when a sale is made. “The process
will have to be as quick and as reliable as the one for credit cards
or it won’t be acceptable in practice,” he said.
Each pack of product will have an identifying code on it, either in the
form of a barcode or a radio-frequency identity chip. The codes will
be linked to a database held by a third party. On dispensing, pharmacists
will scan in the code and this will be authenticated from the database.
Details of the scheme are to be presented at a conference on counterfeiting
and pharmaceutical fraud in London next week.
The problems of counterfeits abroad and in the UK were discussed recently
at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (see pp453–4) and the
World Congress of Pharmacy (see pp465–6).
Leading article, p436 |
