RFID seeks out the real deal
According to the US FDA, counterfeit drugs now represent 10% of the global market. To combat the issue and improve patient safety, Texas Instruments is advocating an authenticated RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) platform, combining RFID and Public-key infrastructure (PKI) technologies, which it recently unveiled as part of an alliance with industry leaders, VeriSign and now 3M.
According to the US FDA, counterfeit drugs now represent 10% of the global market. To combat the issue and improve patient safety, Texas Instruments is advocating an authenticated RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) platform, combining RFID and Public-key infrastructure (PKI) technologies, which it recently unveiled as part of an alliance with industry leaders, VeriSign and now 3M.
The platform brings together a combination of hardware and software architecture to provide manufacturers with multiple lines of defence in addressing the issue of product counterfeiting and diversion. Designed to support EPCglobal's network and serialisation scheme, it can immediately impact pharmaceutical supply chain safety through real-time, off-network authentication at the dispensing pharmacy. This first step can be implemented quickly with minimal investments in current infrastructure and easily expanded to encompass the entire supply chain.
The layers of the authenticated RFID model are: PKI digital signing of tags - during the product manufacturing process, a digital signature is generated and locked into the memory of an RFID tag integrated into a drug package. This can be read by authenticated RFID readers to validate the product at the pharmacy dispenser or throughout the entire supply chain; package integrity - the tag's 'electronic fingerprint' can be further coupled to physical elements of the label to further improve security of the label; supply chain of custody event validation - throughout the supply chain, authenticated readers can create event validation information for both the tag and data network. Event time/date stamps called event markers allow for another level of authentication when comparing the event data written to the tag to the corresponding event data stored in a distributed data network.
As the platform becomes adopted at each additional point in the supply chain, the architecture manoeuvres to support electronic pedigree (e-Pedigree), which provides incrementally higher levels of confidence in the drug supply chain.
The approach has received positive reviews from leading pharma supply chain participants and AMR research analyst Dennis Gaughan. It is of global importance as many countries do not have government initiatives to prevent counterfeiting.