Cardinal Health Releases RFID Pilot Results

Cardinal Health, Inc., the leading provider of products and services supporting the health-care industry, today announced the results from the first end-to-end test of a technology that could further improve the safety and efficiency of the nation?s pharmaceutical supply chain.

The pilot program tested whether ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tags could be applied, encoded and read at normal production speeds during packaging and distribution of pharmaceuticals. Verifying the authenticity of medications along each step of the distribution process adds an additional layer of security to lessen the chance of counterfeit pharmaceuticals entering the supply chain. It is also hoped that RFID data could improve efficiencies in the supply chain.

?Cardinal Health?s test of RFID under real-world conditions has demonstrated that the technology has real promise to provide an added layer of safety,? said Renard Jackson, vice president and general manager of global packaging services for Cardinal Health. ?While our pilot demonstrated that using UHF RFID technology at the unit, case and pallet level is feasible for track and trace purposes, a great deal of additional work needs to be undertaken by stakeholders across the industry to address significant challenges including global standards, privacy concerns and the safe handling of biologics. Until those challenges are addressed, direct distribution of medicine continues to be the best near-term approach to maintain the highest levels of security and efficiency in the pharmaceutical supply chain.?


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