Features

• Start-up aims to make pharma cargo tamper-proof

  A security system to protect cargo containers and pallets from theft and tampering is promising to improve security in the pharmaceutical sector.

• Brazil may swap its serialisation scheme for Turkish model

  Brazil may back away from its current plans for a national serialisation system for drugs and adopt one closer to the Turkish model.

• 'Teething troubles' hit Turkey's serialisation roll-out

  Turkey's tracking system for drugs went live on May 16, months behind schedule, but there are already reports of problems with the system.

• Janssen pioneers drug validation tool for customs

  Janssen-Cilag has developed a web-based tool that will make it easier for customs to check whether a suspect medicine shipment is fake or genuine.

• Safety in numbers: Brazil's medicine serialisation initiative

  Brazil's three-year plan to implement traceability across the nation's prescription drug supply is ambitious, but can industry meet the deadline?

• Pharmelp offers fake drugs know-how to labs in poorer nations

  Pharmelp has developed equipment and methods to test counterfeit medicines that can be implemented easily and at low cost by labs in the developing world.

• Cutting out the middleman: the rise of direct distribution in pharma

  A new trend in the US pharmaceutical sector, restricted distribution, is providing new opportunities to companies providing technologies that track goods from the manufacturer to the consumer.

• Parliamentary report broadens, accelerates counterfeiting directive

  The EU Parliamentary report on the proposed counterfeit directive is now in circulation with a number of amendments that widen its scope.

• PGEU wants robust debate on safety features

  There needs to be a “robust” debate about the type of safety features to be applied under the European Commission’s draft directive on counterfeit medicines, says PGEU chief John Chave.

• Rx-360 concept finds favour with European audience

  Rx-360's ambitious project to implement common standards and shared audits in pharmaceutical ingredient supply won broad approval from delegates at the group's EU launch meeting.

• Political stand-offs 'holding back efforts to fight counterfeits'

  Reports of another EU generics seizure - this time in France - reignite debate over conflation of patent and trademark issues in counterfeit drugs.

• Up to 30 per cent of EU generics 'contain falsified APIs'

  The percentage of off-patent medicines in the EU that contain falsified active ingredients is "at least 20-30 per cent," says EFCG.

• Interim EU measures needed to stem counterfeits

  The EU must move quickly to put in place elements of the EC's proposals for action against counterfeit drugs, says one drugmaker whose products have fallen prey to counterfeiters.

• TraceLink buy refocuses SupplyScape

  Traceability firm SupplyScape has been bought by a new company with private equity backing in a deal that re-unites the business with its original founders.

• RFID in pharma: Abbott and 3M take it beyond the pilot

  Abbott's investment in RFID has provided not only a way to authenticate its Lupron Depot cancer product, but also a swathe of other benefits that differentiate the drug in the marketplace.

• Traceability of medicines in EU: feasible, but challenging

  An EU project gives clear evidence that serialisation of medicines is a feasible way of achieving full and reliable traceability in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

• How to tackle the counterfeiters? Target their profits!

  Despite calls for stiffer penalties for drug counterfeiters, a UK operation reveals how potent existing legislation can be in tackling the trade.

• Novartis unveils verification plans

  Novartis is rolling out a digital marker technology across its portfolio as a key part of its defence against counterfeiting and diversion.

• B2B trade boards: a key link in the counterfeit trade?

  Online trading boards offer just about everything the would-be drug counterfeiter might need, and their role in the market for bulk ingredients is growing.

• Pharmaceutical cargo theft: a growing problem

  Cargo theft is becoming an increasingly important supply chain security issue for the industry, and the economic downturn is likely to spark an increase in this type of criminal activity.

• PharmoRx: taking on the drug diverters

  PharmoRx CEO discusses AuthentiTrack, a suite of serialisation, track-and-trace and authentication technologies that is targeted at the drug and medical device sectors.

• Sweden will host EFPIA serialisation project

  EFPIA has selected Sweden as the location for its much-anticipated pilot project aimed at verifying the identity of pharmaceuticals at the point of dispensing.

• Globalisation and supply chain security: the view from Interphex

  Globalisation of commerce is making it harder for drugmakers to maintain tight control over supply chains, raising issues of security.

• New Momentum debuts software to catch the counterfeiters

  US company New Momentum is seeing great results with its anti-counterfeiting software as it moves into the pharmaceutical sector.

• MHRA enforcement chief paints picture of UK counterfeit trade

  Cases of counterfeit medicines entering the UK’s legitimate supply chain show that the weak link is often insufficient ‘due diligence’ by the purchaser, according to an MHRA official.