An online system to be launched later this week will enable pharmacists to check individual packets of drugs against a central database almost instantaneously, reducing the risk of counterfeit, recalled or substandard drugs being dispensed.
Worldwide sales of counterfeit drugs could nearly double to $75bn (€60bn, £40bn) by 2010, according to the New York-based Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. In some developing countries more than 50 per cent of the drug supply is said to be counterfeit.
Gary Noon, chief executive of Aegate, the pharmaceutical authentication company which developed the new system, said it could be particularly beneficial in third world countries because of the choice of technology used.
Aegate, a subsidiary of UK-based PA Consulting Group, has held trials of the system in the US and UK, using both standard barcodes and the newer, much-hyped technology of RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags.
The system to be launched in Belgium this week uses barcodes. Mr Noon said RFID tags were still quite expensive and at 20-40 cents apiece would not be economically viable on, for example, a packet of generic anti-malarials being sold for $2 in the third world. “Today, with barcodes, it’s just the cost of the ink.”
Counterfeit drugs are becoming a serious issue, even in highly controlled markets, said Mr Noon. Graham Smith, chairman of the distribution group at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said: “Three or four years ago I would have said there was no real necessity [for such a system] as we don’t have counterfeit drugs. But recently there have been a number of examples within Europe, and this is potentially an area that could increase in future.”
Dirk Broeckx, secretary-general of the Association Pharmaceutique Belge, the professional pharmacy association of Belgium, said it would be a big help to pharmacists because of the heavy responsibility they bore for patient safety.
“Since 1885, pharmacists in Belgium have had ‘responsibility without fault’ – they are responsible for everything they deliver, whether a mistake is their fault or not. So we have always been interested in anything that covers that responsibility as efficiently as possible.”
Aegate will maintain a database with up-to-date information from drug companies and regulators.
A pharmacist scanning a product’s barcode before sale can receive information from the database over a secure internet connection. If the barcode is not in the database the system will declare the product counterfeit.
Alternatively, the pharmacist may be told that the product has been recalled or is past its sell-by date. If the product is approved, the pharmacist may be asked to check an additional anti-counterfeiting measure, such as a red spot under the lid or a hologram on the side of the box. These features could be moved around and redesigned for each batch of products.
