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Stores want out of drug-tracking plan

By JONI JAMES
Published March 8, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Two years after Florida passed a groundbreaking plan aimed at stemming the sale of counterfeit prescription drugs, the state's retail lobby and two of its biggest drugstore chains are pushing to be exempted from it.

A bill filed by two leaders of legislative health care committees and backed by lobbyists for CVS Corp., Walgreen Co. and the Florida Retail Federation would rewrite the state law so only wholesalers would have to authenticate pharmaceuticals from a manufacturer before passing them on.

The Prescription Drug Safety Act of 2003 called for requiring "pedigree papers" to travel with each pharmaceutical as it moved from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer so each party was sure of the drug's potency. The program is scheduled to be in full effect in July 2006.

The law, heralded at the time as one of the first of its kind in the nation, came in the wake of a damning statewide grand jury investigation that found fake versions of lifesaving medications had flowed through legitimate vendors in significant amounts, risking an untold number of lives. Particularly targeted by scammers were high-end cancer and AIDS drugs.

But retailers say a more robust paper trail is no longer needed, since state regulators have cracked down on wholesalers. Currently, 966 businesses are licensed as either wholesalers or out-of-state manufacturers; roughly one-third fewer than the 1,409 licensed before the law was passed.

The powerful retail lobby also contends the cost of implementing the plan is far greater than anyone imagined two years ago because the tracking scheme retailers say they prefer - Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID - hasn't dropped as much in price as everyone anticipated.

RFID, which Wal-Mart is testing in its stockroom and a handful of other retailers are trying as well, is predicted to be the next generation barcode. The pricetag-sized device, when attached to a product, transmits a unique, location-specific signal to any nearby receiver that records date and time.

"We think the state has made a great strides in cleaning up this problem," said Randy Miller, lobbyist for the retail federation. "We don't see what is gained by putting this burden on every retail pharmacy."

But the retailers' push has drawn sharp a rebuke from Attorney General Charlie Crist and appointees of Gov. Jeb Bush, who were key in helping pass and implement the 2003 law. Currently 31 of the most-often counterfeited drugs sold in Florida are tracked from manufacturer to pharmacy. The law requires that all drugs be tracked starting July 1, 2006.

"We already compromised by delaying it to 2006," Crist said. "That ought to be good enough."

"The retailers see one more chance to slow this down and that would be unfortunate," said Jim McDonough, director of Bush's drug control office. "The whole point was to bring it all the way down to the retail level because you can have counterfeiting at that level too."

Secretary of Health John Agwunobi said he's willing to listen to why retailers want to change the plan, "But I must say I'm extremely reluctant. They're going to have to prove to me that this in no way undermines what we were trying to accomplish. ... That the average 60-year-old wants to know what is on the pharmacy shelf is safe."

Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, and Rep. Juan Zapata, R-Miami, said they filed the bills at the retailers' request. Peaden chairs the Senate's health care committee; Zapata is vice chair of the House committee. Both said they're sympathetic to the retailers' concerns, but have made no promises.

"I'm worried about how much this could cost mom-and-pop pharmacists and there's a lot of those in my district," Zapata said Friday. "But I'm hoping we can find a middle ground."

--Joni James can be reached at 850-224-7263 or jjames@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 8, 2005, 16:52:55]