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Why we need mass serialization--now! Gary Noon argues the case for mass serialization and explains why point of dispensing drug authentication is not only a guarantee of medicine integrity, but also a beneficial and cost-effective solution for the pharmaceutical industry.

Article Excerpt
Today, approximately 1.5 million counterfeit medicine packs enter the legal supply chain each year--in other words, one pack in every 20000 is counterfeit. What is more worrying, however, is the rate at which this is increasing. Between now and 2020, the spread of counterfeit drugs is estimated to rise to either an 'optimistic' 19.5 million or a pessimistic 192 million packs in the legal supply chain.

What happens when a product has to be removed from the market? Experience from a range of industries shows that a more effective method of recalling products is needed. In 2005, for example, 2500 packets of fake Lipitor, Pfizer's widely used anti-cholesterol medicine, were believed to have entered the UK market. Research by Frost & Sullivan estimates that fewer than 15% of the packs were recovered. Aside from the potential danger to patients this inability to effectively recall drugs poses, the damage to the reputations of individual manufacturers and to the industry as a whole is vast.

According to the EU Commission consultation on combating counterfeiting medicines for human use, released in December 2008, the annual direct and indirect societal costs of counterfeiting are approximately [euro]950 million. The overall costs of inaction will reach [euro]9.5 billion-[euro]116 billion by 2020, and this does not take into account the intangible yet significant damage to...

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