IBM Intros ePedigree

ARMONK, N.Y. -- IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) today announced the availability of an offering that will allow pharmaceutical companies to create an electronic certificate of authenticity (known as an electronic pedigree or ePedigree) for every drug that passes through the supply chain. The offering allows all participants in the drug supply chain -- manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and hospitals -- secure and on demand access to historical data on individual bottles or packages of medicine.

The ePedigree feature is a key capability of the new version of IBM's WebSphere RFID Information Center (RFIDIC), a high performance data repository that allows clients to efficiently manage and securely share information with trading partners to authenticate pharmaceuticals. Unlike competing solutions, the IBM offering was designed to manage and aggregate product serial numbers to enable processes in manufacturing plants, distribution centers, pharmacies, and hospitals.

IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center is already being used successfully by AmerisourceBergen, a "big three" pharmaceutical distributor, in its Sacramento pilot, and by a large global pharmaceutical manufacturer. IBM is working closely with its customers in the pharmaceutical industry to enhance the product's capabilities.

ITAIDE, a global e-customs project, is also using WebSphere RFID Information Center to manage serial numbers relating to the global movement of shipping containers.

IBM's new ePedigree feature allows clients to comply with new and emerging regulations such as those that will take effect in California in 2009 using either RFID, 2D barcodes, or a combination of barcodes and RFID. The offering provides a flexible "track and trace" framework for generating ePedigrees through standards-based EPC Information Services. By establishing ePedigree via EPCIS events and queries, clients will also be able to easily access key data elements to solve other business needs such as chargeback resolution and expiration management."IBM's approach to ePedigree is unique in that it enables ePedigree compliance without significant impact to the existing business processes and legacy IT systems," said Shay Reid, AmerisourceBergen, Vice President, Integrated Solutions. "This system will be a helpful tool in our industry to comply with mandates, various trading partner requirements, and enable new business use cases."

IBM Corp.