Foiling counterfeit drugs

3M and Texas Instruments have teamed up to implement a strategy to battle drug counterfeiting and boost pharmaceutical supply chain security. The companies are offering an integrated security solution for the pharmaceutical market's first authenticated radio frequency identification (RFID) industry platform.

The Authenticated RFID Platform is a multilayered, transaction-based security solution where each item is uniquely and securely authenticated. A Texas Instruments RFID tag placed on each package delivers a machine-readable security stamp containing a digital signature that is based on Public-key Infrastructure (PKI). Dispensing sites can use this digital signature as strong evidence that the product came from the original manufacturer.

The basic system delivers authentication between each end of the supply chain. Layering overt and covert physical security features into the Authenticated RFID label makes it more difficult to compromise the security of the label and serves as a backup to package verification to give supply chain participants without readers a method to verify tag authenticity.