Application cases of RFID and biometrics in anti-counterfeiting in chain pharmacies
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Medicarte, a Colombian drugstore chain, has introduced RFID technology and used passive high-frequency tags to track the packaging of expensive drugs such as cancer and hormones to prevent discarded packaging from falling into the hands of criminals such as counterfeiters.
Angela Maria, Regional Manager of Medicarte, said: “The treatment of cancer and some hormones and other drugs are very expensive and have great profit margins on the black market. We need to take effective measures to control the proliferation of counterfeit products. Through the use of RFID and biometric technology, Effectively track the drugs sold to achieve maximum recovery of empty packages.”
IDlink, an RFID solution provider in Medellin, Colombia, is responsible for the development of the system. Medicarte affixed Tagsys’ RFID passive high frequency (HF) tags that comply with the ISO 15693 standard to the outer packaging of medicines.
The Tagsys LP-101 reader reads the pre-encoded serial number stored in the tag, and the information is sent out via the Aero LC antenna. Medicarte employees enter the type and expiration date of the batch of drugs into the software database.
When a customer goes to a pharmacy to buy medicine for the first time, the system will store their fingerprint information. The pharmacist uses HID Global’s OMNIKEY 5321 USB RFID reader to read the label on the medicine package, and establishes a connection between the serial number of the label and the customer.
The pharmacy stipulates that patients should return the used medicines to the pharmacy when they buy medicines again. The company stated that this is not legally enforced, mainly to reduce the rampant counterfeit and inferior products on the market.
The patient puts his finger on the fingerprint reader, the identification data matches the data that has been recorded, and checks to see if such medicines have been purchased. Use the Omnikey reader to read the label data on the package to ensure that the customer matches the drug.
This solution enables Medicarte to track the total number of labeled drugs and monitor the actual number delivered to patients. It also helps to monitor the shelf life of medicines. When the pharmacy sells drugs that are about to expire, the computer in the store will send out an alarm in time.
The system is currently in use in the cities of Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla, Pereira and Manizales. The cloud-based management software is integrated with Medicarte Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Before the deployment of the RFID system, the information about the medicines purchased by patients was manually recorded. RFID technology greatly reduces the error rate that may be caused by manual recording.
RFID technology greatly simplifies the company’s internal processes and is expected to extend the system to the source of the supply chain. In 2012, Medicarte plans to apply mobile phone NFC technology to the service of home delivery of medicines. The delivery personnel scan the label information on the package with a mobile phone at the door of the customer, and send the label code to the company’s ERP system to ensure the accuracy of delivery through GPS coordinates.
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