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.
