RFID on drugs: Who will pay?

Pharmacists across the UK have been trialling RFID technology in an effort to reduce dispensing errors.

BT and PA Consulting venture Aegate, alongside various drug manufacturers and pharmacists' groups, have been experimenting with adding RFID tags and scanners to the dispensing mix.

Dual barcode and RFID readers were placed in several locations across the UK - 37 were placed in community pharmacists, nine went to hospitals and a further four were used in dispensing doctors.

The dual scanners were able to recognise eight drugs from six different manufacturers. According to the passive code read from the RFID-tagged bottle, pharmacists were able to check the drugs given to patients against drugs prescribed, check medicines had not expired and see if the particular batch the drugs came from was subject to a recall or counterfeit warning.

With 56 out of 10,000 prescriptions being wrongly dispensed, pharmacists are keen to see the number of mis-dispensed drugs fall.

Andrew Gill, pharmacist and director of operations at Aegate, said: "All our pilot pharmacists told us pharmacists are worried about making dispensing errors - it keeps them awake at night."

Counterfeiting is also making a comeback in the UK drug supply chain. Nigel Cox, IT director for the National Pharmaceutical Association, said: "The threat is real now."

With the Department of Health targeting a 40 per cent reduction in dispensing errors and its US counterpart, the Food and Drug Administration, already recommending manufacturers implement the technology in their supply chain, many believe the entrance of RFID into the health sector is just a matter of time.

The pilot claims a 100 per cent success rate in stopping the dispensing of dummy fake packs and after the 120 day trial was concluded, one in four pharmacists asked to keep their scanner.

However, unlike big business, the public sector has short arms and deep pockets and is now faced with the question of who - if anyone - should pay for the technology should interest in it develop significantly.

Aegate's Gill said: "We need to sort out who's going to be paying what - the manufacturer of the [pharmaceutical] products can expect to be a significant payer," adding that pharmacies may be expected to contribute, although not on the same scale as the multinationals.

"It's possible government will make some contribution," according to Gill. Aegate CEO Ian Rhodes said the company would like to see the technology endorsed by the government in the future.

Without an investment from either the government or drug firms, pharmacies are likely to struggle to find the budget for RFID equipment in their dispensaries.

David Baker, chief executive of the Dispensing Doctors' Association, said the group's members would like to see manufacturers and the government paying. Without such an investment, it will be a "difficult concept to sell to the dispensing doctor", he said.

The National Pharmaceutical Association's Cox, however, believes the drug manufacturers will be only too happy to pay. "Manufacturers... recognise counterfeiting and diversions costing them a lot of money," he said, and are always keen to associate themselves with patient safety issues.

The drug makers involved in the project were initially approached by Aegate to take part but their interest in the technology has increased following the pilot's completion, Aegate's Rhodes said.

The government is "very supportive, very interested" in the use of RFID in the NHS, he added.

Should stakeholders wish to pursue use of the tracking technology, a commercial launch could be viable in 12 months, according to Rhodes.