Officials with California's state Board of Pharmacy recently announced that they're pushing back the implementation of a controversial law to create an electronic chain of custody for pharmaceuticals. This is welcome news, as the law would have created a logistical and financial nightmare – and significantly raised the price of medicines in California.
Passed in 2004, the law's aim was noble – beat back the rising tide of counterfeit drugs by establishing a statewide system for tracking prescription drug shipments from point-of-production to point-of-sale.
The law's problem, however, was that it would have imposed back-breaking costs on pharmaceutical manufacturers and dramatically inflated drug prices for consumers – while doing little to undermine counterfeiters. That's why, rather than just delay the law, officials should scrap it entirely.
A universal tracking requirement is a shotgun-style solution to a problem better suited for a precision, SWAT-team approach.
Constructing and maintaining tracking technology is expensive. Under the law, every pharmacy in California would have to install equipment costing $10,000 to $40,000 – with no help from the state. Every other business along the distribution chain (drugmakers, hospitals, shipping companies, etc.) would also have to install this technology.
Those increased production costs mean higher drug prices for consumers, and less money for research and development and other promising technological investments like electronic medical records.
It's also unwise for state officials to dictate what kind of tracking technology companies should use. Counterfeiters are devising increasingly sophisticated ways to copy and sell brand-name pharmaceuticals. Drug carriers need to be given the freedom to respond in kind. This law locks them into a technology that could soon be antiquated.
Here's a real solution: Increase the criminal penalties for counterfeiting. As is, punishments aren't proportional to the threat posed to public health. Today, counterfeiting a prescription drug label is punishable with a decade of jail time. Counterfeiting the drug itself? A maximum of three years. That's just not acceptable.
Here’s the rest of the story as it appeared in the Orange County Register:
Orange County Register Op-Ed
Tracking legislation should come from the federal level – a single, uniform system administered by the FDA. A mishmash of state laws is wildly inefficient and will only create weak links in our national chain of custody that will certainly be exploited by criminals who don't think twice before putting counterfeit drugs into Americans' medicine chests.
Passed in 2004, the law's aim was noble – beat back the rising tide of counterfeit drugs by establishing a statewide system for tracking prescription drug shipments from point-of-production to point-of-sale.
The law's problem, however, was that it would have imposed back-breaking costs on pharmaceutical manufacturers and dramatically inflated drug prices for consumers – while doing little to undermine counterfeiters. That's why, rather than just delay the law, officials should scrap it entirely.
A universal tracking requirement is a shotgun-style solution to a problem better suited for a precision, SWAT-team approach.
Constructing and maintaining tracking technology is expensive. Under the law, every pharmacy in California would have to install equipment costing $10,000 to $40,000 – with no help from the state. Every other business along the distribution chain (drugmakers, hospitals, shipping companies, etc.) would also have to install this technology.
Those increased production costs mean higher drug prices for consumers, and less money for research and development and other promising technological investments like electronic medical records.
It's also unwise for state officials to dictate what kind of tracking technology companies should use. Counterfeiters are devising increasingly sophisticated ways to copy and sell brand-name pharmaceuticals. Drug carriers need to be given the freedom to respond in kind. This law locks them into a technology that could soon be antiquated.
Here's a real solution: Increase the criminal penalties for counterfeiting. As is, punishments aren't proportional to the threat posed to public health. Today, counterfeiting a prescription drug label is punishable with a decade of jail time. Counterfeiting the drug itself? A maximum of three years. That's just not acceptable.
Here’s the rest of the story as it appeared in the Orange County Register:
Orange County Register Op-Ed
Tracking legislation should come from the federal level – a single, uniform system administered by the FDA. A mishmash of state laws is wildly inefficient and will only create weak links in our national chain of custody that will certainly be exploited by criminals who don't think twice before putting counterfeit drugs into Americans' medicine chests.
