The pharmaceutical supply chain needs "several layers" of technology to boost its security, according to an expert.
Duane Sword, vice president at Thermo Fisher Scientific, writing in industry magazine PharmPro, said those who wanted to breach the system were becoming smarter and the response to them had evolved in order to cope.
"Once a drug leaves its manufacturer it is left wide open to be adulterated, completely faked, diluted, relabelled, and repackaged or manufactured without authorisation," he said.
Sword said the five main threats facing the supply chain are theft, illegal transport between countries, counterfeiting, contract breach, and fraud.
But he said that the technology was now widely available for firms to stay one step ahead of the criminals, but some needed to seek supply chain consultants in order to devise and implement best practices.
LG Electronics recently announced proposals to bolster its supply chain security by engaging CargoNet.
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