PSM applauds Arkansas Board of Pharmacy for protecting patients
February 14, 2025 (Washington DC) - The Partnership for Safe Medicines applauds the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy for utilizing new product verification technology for identifying illegitimate Ozempic quarantined by a pharmacy this week. The product verification tool, Pulse, has been developed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).
This week, the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy deployed an inspector to investigate a suspect unit of Ozempic quarantined by an Arkansas pharmacy. The inspector arrived at the pharmacy and utilized NABP's Pulse product verification tool on his cellphone. Using Pulse's verification system the inspector used the product verification which quickly informed him it was not genuine Ozempic.
The Arkansas State Board Of Pharmacy, which had been undertaking an investigation of this distributor already, held an emergency hearing and immediately suspended the license of the distributor who sold the product to the pharmacy.
"The Arkansas State Board Of Pharmacy exemplifies 21st century patient safety protection" said PSM Executive Director Shabbir Imber Safdar. "By utilizing the NABP Pulse product, they have shown how you can catch illegitimate product in the supply chain quickly and quarantine it from the public. Twenty years ago, this task might have taken weeks, and enormous amounts of unsafe product might have reached the public during that time."
Images of falsified product provided through public records request from Arkansas Board Of Pharmacy
The Pulse product, developed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), is now coming online after three years in development. Pulse provides access to user-friendly tools and a comprehensive network of verified relationships, enabling consistent communication with trusted partners across the supply chain to verify products using the Drug Supply Chain Security Act which was mandated by Congress in 2013 when a ten year implementation began.
The software tool connects regulators, pharmacies, distributors, and manufacturers. Pulse's developer, NABP, is uniquely positioned to be an independent and impartial source of information that can connect trading partners with the goal of enabling DSCSA compliance.
This level of safety is a significant step above the crisis of counterfeit Procrit and Epogen in the early 2000's, when product verification could take weeks to conduct, instead of seconds. During that crisis, documented in Katherine Eban's "Dangerous Doses", unsafe product harmed unsuspecting patients around the U.S.
PSM wants to recongize the Arkansas Board of Pharmacy and their investigator* for their enthusiasm in adopting this new technology and their quick response to protect the public. We would also like to thank the Brand Protection team at Novo Nordisk that was assisting in the investigation at the time this illegitimate product was discovered.
To learn more about the Drug Supply Chain Security Act and what pharmacists need to know, see PSM's resources dedicated to pharmacy awareness of the DSCSA.
To learn more about the NABP's Pulse product, visit their website.
* As a matter of policy, PSM does not name law enforcement officials unless they are the attorneys of record in a prosecution.