Nigeria to Utilize RFID Tag To Fight Fake Drugs
Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved the use of the anti-counterfeiting technology radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in the fight against fake drugs.
NAFDAC has plans to require all the pharmacies in the country to adopt the method once a sufficient portion of drugs are tagged, according to the RFID Journal.
RFID technology utilizes small tags that are placed in the packaging of medications. The tags give off a signal that can be picked up by a relatively simpler reading device, authenticating whether the drugs are real or not.
In 2009, an RFID tag company met with NAFDAC to address whether the anti-counterfeiting technology could be used to combat counterfeit drugs and made the determination that it could, according to the news source.
RFID tags are one of several anti-counterfeiting technology that utilizes devices or markings on drug packaging. Other such technologies include holograms, unique bar codes and numbers that consumers can text to authorities to verify the medication’s authenticity.