Archive for September, 2011

Earlier this summer J. Wiley & Sons published a new book called “Pharmaceutical Anti-Counterfeiting, Combating the Real Danger from Fake Drugs” by Mark Davison, CEO of Blue Sphere Health, a pharmaceutical consultancy.  I pre-ordered it on Amazon.com in the spring and it was finally delivered in July.  You may have noticed the image and link I added to the left margin under “RxTrace Recommends” shortly after I started reading it.  The hardbound book is 400 pages, including the main text, notes, references, glossary and index, but it took me until now to finish reading it.  I’ve been so busy lately that I could only read a few pages at a time, that is until my vacation when I finally had time to sit down and read the whole book.

The book is broken up into five parts.  Part 1, General Themes, provides an in-depth examination of the problem of drug counterfeiting around the world including its formal definition, the origins, costs, risks, and the contrast (and controversy) between intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting.  In the last chapter of Part 1, Davison explains the difference between “Traceability” and “Authentication”.  He points out that the term “Traceability” is sometimes known as “digital authentication”, where the term “Authentication” by itself is usually used to Read the rest of this entry »

The Partnership for Safe Medicines has announced that discounted registration to their Interchange 2011 meeting will end on September 15th.  That’s next Thursday.  So if you were thinking about attending, make your decision now and register through this link before the end of next Thursday.  After that the fees will increase.

If you are not familiar with the PSM organization or their Interchange gathering I suggest that Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time in over two years the topic of pedigree appears on the agenda of the California Board of Pharmacy for their upcoming meeting on September 7.  Earlier this year in a presentation at the FDA Track & Trace Workshop Board Executive Office Virginia Herald mentioned that the Board would take up the topics of inference, drop shipments, decommissioning and linkage between shipping orders and invoices at a future meeting in 2011.  It’s hard to tell if those will be the actual topics discussed in next week’s meeting because they aren’t called out explicitly.  Here is the item as it actually appears on the agenda: Read the rest of this entry »