When on-line is out of line

Efforts are being stepped up again in the UK to dissuade the general public from obtaining their medicines over the internet with another hard-hitting initiative.

More than one in seven British adults surveyed have admitted bypassing the official pharmaceutical supply chain - and it is highly probable that there were some who did not admit to doing so.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) estimates that between 50% and 90% of medicines sold without a prescription or through unregulated websites are counterfeit, and it is urging consumers to stick to a reliable, regulated source - i.e. a prescription from a healthcare professional dispensed by a pharmacist.

It is backing up its latest campaign, Get Real, Get A Prescription, with a new advertisement. For those who thought the Pfizer cinema ad showing a man regurgitating a dead rat rather hard to swallow, this ad is likely to be even harder to stomach: it is considered so shocking that it is allowed to be screened only after 11pm.

But even following the regulated channels of supply is not a 100% guarantee of authenticity. As a number of Big Pharma companies have found to their cost, counterfeit products have turned up in the legitimate supply chain and were able to fool not only consumers, but also pharmacists and even the manufacturers of the genuine article.

Sophisticated track & trace systems are available and several countries have implemented these with a greater or lesser degree of stringency. But this is a global problem and one that will not be best solved by a piecemeal approach.

Ultimately, a single technology is likely to be accepted as the most effective, but until that decision is made and everyone agrees to conform, the variety of unilateral track & trace systems can be expected to proliferate.

Manufacturing Chemist, in conjunction with Total Processing & Packaging 2010, has compiled a survey to gauge just how active the pharma sector is in implementing track & trace systems and which technologies are leading the pack.

This is your chance to make your voice heard.