GS1 UK urges use of an "electronic trail" to combat counterfeit drugs

GS1 UK, an independent global supply chain data standards organisation, says it is essential that technologies to track drugs and monitor their progress through the entire supply chain are implemented as soon as possible after 70,000 packets of fake drugs entered the UK supply chain.

Although the Medicines Health products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) accounted for 40,000 of the counterfeit packs, the remaining 30,000 were handed out to patients.

The authenticity of the medication was questioned when a wholesaler noticed discrepancies on the product labelling.

GS1 UK suggests that the drugs market will continue to be in jeopardy until further checks are put in place.

Delivering correct, authentic drugs to patients quickly and accurately can help reduce medical errors and improve patient safety, the organisation says.

Implementing traceability systems that support swift and effective product recalls can also prevent patients from being exposed to sub-standard or dangerous counterfeit drugs.

GS1 UK says supermarket-style bar codes and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are effective authentication tools. They can provide a key to unique information, such as what the medication should be, the manufacturer, the batch number and the expiry date. If the information returned is not a match for the product about to be dispensed, then the pharmacist can be alerted to a potential issue and the suspect medication can be withdrawn immediately. This could have prevented the 30,000 unaccounted for drugs from being handed out to patients, says GS1 UK.

GS1 UK completed a pharmaceutical traceability pilot in January, part-funded by the EU, to track 15 different types of drugs using standard bar codes and radio frequency identification (RFID).

The pilot, part of the BRIDGE (Building Radio frequency IDentification solutions for the Global Environment) project, successfully traced drugs in a live environment, at all levels of packaging, from manufacturing plants in Ireland and The Netherlands to their final destination, which was the pharmacy department at Barts and The London NHS Trust.

"˜The pilot was a great success and showed that we have everything we need in place to track and authenticate medication,' says Roger Lamb, healthcare business manager at GS1 UK.

"˜The next challenge is for every organisation in the healthcare sector "“ on a global level "“ to start tracing medication electronically. This will reduce the scourge of counterfeit drugs, like the event revealed by the MHRA, and protect patients from avoidable harm.'

Gary Lynch, GS1 UK chief executive, added: "˜We are working closely with pharmaceutical manufacturers through our UK Healthcare User Group and the Department of Health to encourage the use of our globally recognised unique identification system in a bid to reduce the threat posed to patients by counterfeit medication.

"˜Having a simple system in place to ensure that the packaging and labelling of medication is genuine is a great step towards validating its authenticity, but importantly it allows manufacturers to respond quickly in the event that a product needs to be recalled.'