Drug RFID Technology Awareness ...

Pharmaceutical Education Associates Speech in 2005

Remarks by Lester M. Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D., Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs ...

... "In November, 2004, FDA stepped up its effort by issuing a compliance policy guide to facilitate pilot projects for the use of Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) Technology in the pharmaceutical sector. RFID is the cornerstone technology in the fight against counterfeit drugs because of its ability to track, trace and authenticate packages of drugs. Using state-of-art electronic technology on every product, RFID allows the creation of an electronic pedigree from the point of manufacture to the point of dispensing. An electronic pedigree is a record of all the places where drugs have been and who has had it. It will minimize fraudulent mishandling and mischief to occur to tagged drug products. I announced a few months ago that Pfizer and Purdue Pharma have already joined FDA action in implementing RFID and more are following suit. The FDA expects to see widespread adoption of RFID technology by the pharmaceutical industry by the year 2007. " ...