The United States House of Representatives recently passed a bill called the The Safeguarding Pharmaceuticals Act (H.R.1919), intended to set up a national system for tracking drugs through the supply chain to prevent counterfeit medicines from accessing the market (see our blog post for more details on H.R. 1919). Following passage by the House, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved their own versions of the legislation: S. 957: Pharmaceutical Distribution Supply Chain Act and S. 959: Pharmaceutical Quality, Security, and Accountability Act.

Most consumers would be shocked to know that we have no way of tracking the medication we take. They might know what brand a medication is, but typically do not know where it was manufactured. By creating simple processes and procedures, medication can be tracked and traced all the way through the manufacturing process to the pharmacy and ultimately to a consumer’s medicine cabinet. A national tracking and tracing system would provide much needed protection and peace of mind for American consumers who today may be unknowingly purchasing counterfeit drugs from online pharmacies.

Both S. 957 and S. 959 are awaiting approval by the Senate.  If passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president, S. 957 would help secure the prescription drug supply chain by tracking all medication and ensuring that all Americans know the history of the medications they are taking. S.959 would ensure that there would be a national traceability system to track the movement of drugs throughout the entire supply chain in 10 years.

Substandard and falsified medicines are major global health challenges that unnecessarily harm consumers and threaten to undermine recent progress against infectious diseases by facilitating the emergence of drug resistance. Given the magnitude of the problem, we at CSIP believe that there is an immediate need to start implementing a new national system of tracking and identification rules, sooner rather than later.

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The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and our 13 member companies have the shared goal of helping address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Continue to read this blog for updates on CSIP’s education, enforcement and information-sharing efforts.