Analysis of a new solution from TI, 3M and VeriSign to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain

Pharmaceutical counterfeiting costs the pharmaceutical industry tens of billions of dollars every year and endangers patient health. An initiative from Texas Instruments Inc., 3M Co. and VeriSign Inc. proposes radio frequency identification (RFID) with public-key infrastructure (PKI) as a solution. The initiative, Authenticated RFID for ePedigree Platform, will allow the market to authenticate RFID tagged products without a drug pedigree network. In this white paper, ABI Research assesses the potential value of the initiative. Texas Instruments will provide HF RFID tags, each assigned a unique ID number. 3M will provide and integrate readers for the system, and VeriSign will provide PKI security in the readers used to authenticate the tagged items. At each step in the supply chain, the product could be authenticated and a digital signature or event marker added.

RFID tags offer added security for pharmaceutical companies and a way to facilitate ePedigrees. ABI Research concludes that the Authenticated RFID for ePedigree Platform can provide the industry with a needed authentication system while pedigree laws and systems are evolving. Even as pedigree networks are being constructed, this solution will continue to add another level of security to the pharmaceutical supply chain, ABI Research notes.

• Email This Page
• Print This Page