One of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers Monday announced plans to launch a pilot program early next year to track drugs throughout the distribution process using radio frequency identification technology.
AmerisourceBergen will install IBM’s Track and Trace for Pharma system in its largest distribution center – located in Sacramento, Calif. — to help secure the drug supply chain from theft and tampering.
The system, based on WebSphere middleware, will scan RFID tags now used by pharmaceutical manufacturers for a handful of drugs as cases containing those drugs enter the Sacramento warehouse, said Shay Reid, AmerisourceBergen’s vice president for integrated solutions. As drug orders leave the warehouse, the RFID readers will record the time and location of each unit so the company can build a complete history of all the drugs that are now tagged.
“We’re hoping to establish an electronic chain of custody for each individual unit of drug that is tagged,” Reid said.
AmerisourceBergen hopes to have some components required for the system in place by January and will begin reading RFID tags in March, Reid said. The pilot, which will also use software from VeriSign to authenticate transactions, will include linking AmerisourceBergen’s track and trace system to those used by five drug manufacturers during the first half of 2007. Reid declined to name the manufacturers or provide details on the cost of the project.
In addition to securing the drugs throughout the supply chain, the system – which will store a product code ID for each RFID tag – can also provide real-time receiving and shipping information to AmerisourceBergen’s manufacturing partners to better track inventory, Reid said.
The system also will allow the company to speed up its “reverse logistics,” or taking in returns from pharmacy clients. “The benefits will come across the board,” Reid said. “There are benefits in being able to track shipments that we can’t currently track.”
AmerisourceBergen plans to expand the use of the track and trace system to other distribution centers but has not formulated a timetable for when it will do so, Reid said.
