Pfizer is to start using radio frequency identification
(RFID) tags on its US shipments of Viagra to help tackle
counterfeiters of the male sexual performance drug.
Viagra is one of the most counterfeited drugs being promoted
online, with spammers sending out millions of junk e-mails every
day in an attempt to sell copies of the much sought-after
drug.
To help address the situation and try to reduce the millions of
dollars it loses in sales from this racket, the drug company is to
affix RFID tags to all US packets of the drug.
The company is expected to eventually extend the use of RFID
tags worldwide.
Pfizer is now adding RFID tags to all bottles of Viagra, along
with the cases and pallets used for shipment.
The company is spending around $5m (£3m) on the US project. It
is using French company Tagsys to supply the tags for bottles and
US company Alien Technology for the supply of case and pallet
tags.
Each tag contains a microchip that stores a unique serial code
for each bottle and an antenna for transmitting this number
wirelessly to electronic readers.
Pharmacists and drug distributors can read the codes with a
reader to verify their authenticity, by checking a Pfizer database
via the web. Pfizer is not supplying these readers and so far few
pharmacists and distributors have bought such devices.
But the US Food and Drug Administration has urged the drugs
industry to deploy RFID technology to increase the security of
their products – something which Pfizer is relying on to spread use
of its RFID system.
RFID tags will not be put on the pharmacy bottles used to
distribute the drug to end users, allaying fears that Viagra users
could be tracked.