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GS1 UK, an independent international supply chain data standards and solutions organization, recently commented on the threat of 70,000 packs of counterfeit medicines in the NHS (British National Health Insurance System) cycle. After a wholesaler discovered the difference in drug labels, the authenticity of the drugs was questioned. GS1 UK recommends that the pharmaceutical market continue to operate until further inspection results are released.
Supermarket barcodes and radio frequency identification (RFID) are both effective identification tools. They can provide unique key information, such as the name of the drug, manufacturer, batch number, and expiration date. If the information they return does not match the information on the distribution of the product, the pharmacist will receive a potential problem alert and may immediately withdraw the suspicious drug. This can avoid causing serious harm on a large scale as mentioned in today’s news.
GS1 completed a medical traceability pilot jointly initiated by Europe last month to track 15 different drugs, using barcodes and radio frequency identification (RFID) standards. The pilot, as part of the BRIDGE (Using RFID to provide solutions for the global environment) project, successfully achieved tracking in the real environment and applied to various packaging levels, from the Irish manufacturer through the Netherlands to the destination—London, England Barts National Health and Medical Services Foundation.
“The pilot has been a great success, and it shows that the conditions required to track and certify drugs can be achieved,” said Roger Lamb, GS1 UK’s medical business manager. “The next challenge is in all organizations in the medical industry- Worldwide-began to implement electronic drug tracking. This initiative can reduce the harm caused by counterfeit drugs, as is happening today, and can also protect patients from avoidable harm.”
“We work closely with drug manufacturers through the UK Health Care User Organization and the Department of Health to encourage them to use our globally certified unique identification system to reduce the threat of counterfeit drugs to patients,” Gary Vice President of GS1 UK Lynch said, “Configuring a simple system to ensure the packaging and labeling of drugs is a very important step in confirming the authenticity of drugs. More importantly, the system allows manufacturers to respond quickly when they need to recall drugs.”
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