An article published on April 8th, 2008 in RFID Update asks the question "California Not Ready for Drug Pedigrees -- Is RFID?", and goes on to discuss how the California Board of Pharmacy has moved the compliance deadline to 2011 from the original 2009 deadline. The article goes on to discuss how RFID and other drug pedigree solutions need more time to mature before implementation.
What is important for all stakeholders to understand about the drug pedigree challenge is that it is not an RFID issue. It is a security issue. Drug pedigree is not about being able to easily inventory drugs, it is about being able to securely identify and track them. RFID is a technology which plays a small (albeit potentially a very significant) part in the drug pedigree solution chain. The benefits of the currently available RFID technologies definitely outweigh the risks of using a non-RFID based solution as a primary means of identifying and tracking drugs. What organizations need to begin focusing on is securing the drug pedigree solution on a systemic level. What are the concerns pharma has with deploying RFID solutions and what can be done to address those concerns? How significant is the issue compared to a protracted delay of deploying a solution? Can a solution be put in place with an understanding of potential current weaknesses and a road map to improving the weaknesses as resources permit?
RFID technologies are, without a doubt, ready for the challenge. We simply need to move forward and intelligently deploy solutions which are ready for the next improvement. We need to do this now, because drug counterfeiters are not slowing down their developments while we decide what to do.
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