IBM taps RFID for pharma industry

IBM unveiled a radio frequency identification (RFID) system for tracking and tracing of pharmaceuticals.

The system makes it more difficult for counterfeit drugs to get to market, protecting consumers by helping ensure the drugs they receive match the prescription from their physician.

With nearly 8 percent of the world's prescriptions proving counterfeit each year, the US Food and Drug Administration has cited RFID as the most promising technology to ensure that the medicine in the bottle is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The global pharmaceutical supply chain is highly complicated. From the point of manufacture to the point of sale, drugs can change hands as many as ten times. IBM's software and services are designed to help manufacturers protect product from theft and fraud and avoid replacement costs for product recalls and tarnished brand value.

The IBM RFID system for pharmaceutical track and trace uses blended RFID software and services to automatically capture and track the movement of drugs through the supply chain. RFID tags are embedded on products at the unit, case and pallet level and authenticate the product from manufacturer to wholesalers to hospitals and pharmacies. Each tag contains a unique identifier -- like a license plate -- that can be linked back to descriptive product information such as dosage and strength, lot number, manufacturer and expiration date.

"We hold the security of the nation's drug supply as a top priority and have taken several leadership steps to ensure a safe and secure supply chain," said Renard Jackson, executive vice president for Cardinal Health. "As part of a multi-pronged approach, RFID is a promising technology that has the potential to add an additional layer of security and improve efficiency across the entire supply chain, which is why we have partnered with leaders like IBM in a pilot program to determine its feasibility and effectiveness in a real-world setting."

In addition to consumer protection, the IBM-developed RFID system helps manufacturers and distributors improve performance by reducing the cash tied up in inventory, targeting recalls and enabling faster response to market demand.

"IBM's extensive experience with RFID has demonstrated that this technology has unique capabilities to offer in helping protect drugs from tampering," said Paul Chang, RFID/Pharma Executive, IBM. "And in an industry that lives depend on, IBM is leading the way to a safer, more secure supply chain."

The IBM RFID system for pharmaceutical track and trace is based on the IBM WebSphere software platform and an architecture that allows clients to reuse existing assets, thereby building new applications quickly and at a lower cost for development.

IBM provides RFID systems for hundreds of the world's leading companies, as well as middle-market and growing companies. This offering is based on a definable, repeatable methodology that enables streamlined service delivery.

For further information, please visit:
www.ibm.com/healthcare

Most Popular Now

AI Distinguishes Glioblastoma from Look-…

A Harvard Medical School–led research team has developed an AI tool that can reliably tell apart two look-alike cancers found in the brain but with different origins, behaviors, and treatments. The...

AI Body Composition Measurements can Pre…

Adiposity - or the accumulation of excess fat in the body - is a known driver of cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease...

AI can Strengthen Pandemic Preparedness

How to identify the next dangerous virus before it spreads among people is the central question in a new Comment in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. In it, researchers discuss how...

'Future-Guided' AI Improves Se…

In the world around us, many things exist in the context of time: a bird’s path through the sky is understood as different positions over a period of time, and...

New AI Tool Scans Social Media for Hidde…

A new artificial intelligence tool can scan social media data to discover adverse events associated with consumer health products, according to a study published September 30th in the open-access journal...

Yousif's Story with Sectra and The …

Embarking on healthcare technology career after leaving his home as a refugee during his teenage years, Yousif is passionate about making a difference. He reflects on an apprenticeship in which...

Study Finds One-Year Change on CT Scans …

Researchers at National Jewish Health have shown that subtle increases in lung scarring, detected by an artificial intelligence-based tool on CT scans taken one year apart, are associated with disease...

New AI Tools Help Scientists Track How D…

Artificial intelligence (AI) can solve problems at remarkable speed, but it’s the people developing the algorithms who are truly driving discovery. At The University of Texas at Arlington, data scientists...

AI Tool Offers Deep Insight into the Imm…

Researchers explore the human immune system by looking at the active components, namely the various genes and cells involved. But there is a broad range of these, and observations necessarily...

New Antibiotic Targets IBD - and AI Pred…

Researchers at McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have made two scientific breakthroughs at once: they not only discovered a brand-new antibiotic that targets inflammatory bowel diseases...

Highland to Help Companies Seize 'N…

Health tech growth partner Highland has today revealed its new identity - reflecting a sharper focus as it helps health tech companies to find market opportunities, convince target audiences, and...