Symbol RFID Systems Will Support Law Enforcement to Reduce Drug Counterfeiting

Purdue Pharma L.P. Implements Symbol RFID Solution For Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Item Level Tagging

Symbol Technologies, Inc. , The Enterprise Mobility Company™, today announced that Purdue Pharma L.P., maker of prescription and over-the-counter medicines and hospital products, has purchased Symbol RFID (radio frequency identification) mobile computers for certain major law enforcement and cargo theft investigative groups throughout the country to help combat the illegal trafficking of counterfeit pharmaceutical products. Purdue Pharma will use the Symbol MC9000-G, which combines RFID capabilities, bar code reading, imaging and Wi-Fi connectivity into a versatile mobile computer.

"We are using the Symbol RFID solution to give us greater visibility of our products throughout the supply chain, " said Aaron Graham, Vice President and Chief Security Officer for Purdue. "RFID is a very important technology because it helps us better ensure the authenticity and safety of our product after it leaves our manufacturing facility and is distributed to wholesalers, hospitals and pharmacies."

"RFID technology is fast becoming an integral part of how pharmaceutical companies will distribute products in the future," said Phil Lazo, vice president and general manager of Symbol Technologies, Inc. "Purdue Pharma is setting the new standard for pharmaceutical product counterfeit prevention."

Purdue is one of the first pharmaceutical companies to integrate RFID technology into packaging at the manufacturing level to prevent counterfeiting. As part of Purdue's manufacturing pilot program, Symbol RFID class-0 tags are being used for 100-count bottles of OxyContin® (oxycodone HCI controlled-release) Tablets. The Symbol AR400 readers capture tag information at reader stations along the manufacturing line as products are automatically packaged. The data is then immediately moved into Purdue's asset management SAP system for real-time visibility.

"Integrating the RFID Electronic Product Code (EPC) for each bottle into our SAP system was an extremely important part of the project," said Chuck Nardi, Information Officer, Commercial Systems, at Purdue. "In a short time frame, we worked with SAP and Symbol to make the interface into our information infrastructure a fully functioning system."