Information Management and Tracking of Drugs in Supply Chains within the Pharmaceutical Industry

The authors examine information management and tracking of drugs in supply chains within the pharmaceutical industry. The focal concern in this setting is counterfeit drugs, a dilemma of paramount importance for public health and the well-being and safety of patients. The authors advocate RFID and related technologies, including EPCglobal's Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) and IBM's RFID Information Center system that, in turn, provide a suitable infrastructure for the tracking and tracing of uniquely identifiable, i.e. mass-serialized, products throughout the supply chain. A two-pronged theoretical framework is presented utilizing Transaction Cost Theory and Collective Action Theory to view the present research setting. Several regulatory efforts and compliance regimes are presented and a call for collective action for all stakeholders within the supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry is advanced.