RESEARCH

ePedigree Safeguards Drug Supplies

The pharmaceutical industry loses billions in lost sales annually to counterfeit and stolen drugs. In order to reduce the theft of high-value commodities, drug manufacturers must explore new ways to track drugs along the supply chain. An electronic pedigree (ePedigree) can help establish a chain of custody for pharmaceutical products.

Understanding ePedigree

The goal of ePedigree is to track medicines as they move along the supply chain using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags or some bar code variant. Each entity along the supply chain records and certifies data about the drugs it receives and distributes, as shown in Figure 1. The gathered data includes lot numbers and quantities, as well as information on shipping, receiving, handling, and past sales of the drugs.