Millions of medicine bottles will be fitted with tiny radio antennas in the United States in a bid to combat counterfeiting, it emerged today.
The mini masts will emit a radio signal allowing the manufacturer to keep track of the pill boxes, and prevent them falling into the hands of criminals.
Among the first drugs to be marked will be Viagra and the widely-abused painkiller Oxycontin.
For now, the tiny antennas, called radio-frequency identification, will only be fitted on the large pill bottles sent by American manufacturers to pharmacists.
But as the cost of the technology falls, it could extend to smaller bottles given directly to the consumer, raising privacy concerns.
The decision to tag drug bottles was being announced later today by the US Food and Drug Administration and several major drugs companies, the New York Times reported.
The tracking technology may eventually extend beyond pill boxes. Supermarkets could use it to replace bar codes, meaning an entire trolley of shopping could be scanned and priced instantaneously.
It could also be used to mark suitcases and bags, making lost-luggage a thing of the past.
According to the New York Times, retail giant Wal-Mart and the Pentagon have already ordered their top 100 suppliers to start putting the antennas on delivery pallets beginning in the New Year.
Radio frequency identification consists of computer chips embedded into stickers that emit numbers when prompted by a nearby radio signal.
When a scanner is passed over the tag, a full reading of its history is shown.
The system will allow drugs companies to prevent unscrupulous employees putting counterfeit drugs into the supply chain at an early stage.
One of the first medicines to be tagged, Viagra, is among the most counterfeited drugs in the world.
In September, patients groups in Britain voiced concern about the problem of counterfeit medicines entering UK supplies.
The Patients Association called an urgent summit to examine the integrity of the UK and European Union medicines supply chain.
It followed news that two counterfeit products had been discovered in the UK’s supply chain in the space of a week.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) called for the return of one batch of counterfeit Reductil capsules, used to treat obesity, and two lots of the drug Cialis, designed to treat erectile dysfunction.
Despite the potential of the technology to fight crime and protect patients, privacy-rights groups have raised concerns about the radio tagging.
They fear that the technology could be used to trace who is taking what medications.
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