California State Board of Pharmacy Delays Drug-Tracking System

East Bay Business Times -- The California State Board of Pharmacy voted Tuesday to delay implementation of so-called electronic pedigree requirements for prescription drugs from 2009 until 2011.

The rules require that wholesalers, pharmacies and others transferring a prescription drug provide an electronic form with information about changes in ownership of the drug up and down the supply chain. This includes returned drugs and requires companies to track even individual small packages of drugs.

The standards, part of Senate Bill 1307, anti-counterfeiting legislation passed by the Legislature in 2004, were already delayed previously as part of a 2006 bill.

William Powers, president of the California State Board of Pharmacy, said in a March 25 letter that many companies have reported they still would not be ready to implement the new standard in 2009, but felt they could do it with the extra time.

In particular, Powers noted that with Radio Frequency ID technologies, the pace of development and implementation has accelerated in the last six to 18 months and would benefit greatly from additional time.

"In the absence of such delay, the California drug supply and potentially the entire U.S. drug supply may very well be negatively impacted," Powers wrote, "both or either with regard to availability of life-saving medicines and/or with regard to access to and affordability of those medicines, by an imperfect or non-uniform implementation of pedigree requirements."