Entire Bristol Myers Squibb Shipment Stolen

As reported earlier in Secure Pharma Chain Blog, according to Freightwatch International, Bristol Myers Squibb’s entire truckload of pharmaceuticals, valued at several million dollars was stolen from a rest area in Florence, Kentucky on November 11th.

Products in the shipment included Avapro, Avalide, Coumadin, Abilify, Reyataz and Plavix.

The stolen truck - which was plain white with no unique markings - was taken from a rest area in Florence, Kentucky, after being left unattended for approximately 15 minutes by the driver and a passenger.

The driver had been forced to park some distance away from the main facility because the rest area was full. Evidence from the scene indicated the thieves made entry by breaking the lower window on the passenger side.

FreightWatch has recorded 27 pharmaceutical theft incidents year-to-date in the United States, with an average loss per shipment of $5.1M, up from $4M in 2009.

Secure Pharma Chain is encouraging all members of the pharmaceutical supply chain to be vigilant in protecting their inventories from all suspicious offers of medications from unknown sources. Stolen products are especially dangerous in that the actual drugs will not be handled properly-while the product containers will likely be emptied of the legitimate drugs- replaced with counterfeit drugs and sold within the supply chain.

The most effective solution for the interdiction of fraudulent, adulterated, sub-standard and counterfeit drugs is verifying the drug inside a sealed container with an material authentication technology.

To learn about material authentication technologies, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/

Bristol-Myers Squibb Recalls Lots of Coumadin

Bristol-Myers Squibb is recalling eight production lots of its anti-clotting drug Coumadin because the amount of the active ingredient in the drug could change.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is recalling a total of 144,672 1-milligram tablets of Coumadin, all of which were distributed in the U.S. The recall includes five production lots of Coumadin hospital unit doses and three lots of physician samples. All the tablets were distributed in blisterpacks, no bottled medicine or other doses are involved.

The company said the recall is a precaution, and no side effects have been reported.

BMS said the amount of isopropanol in the tablets could change over time. Isopropanol, or isopropyl alcohol, is used to keep the drug's active ingredient in a crystalline state. The changing levels of isopropanol could increase or reduce the amount of the active ingredient in the tablets.

Secure Pharma Chain Blog endorses the use of authentication technologies to verify the efficacy, quality and effectiveness of pharmaceutical products inside their unit of sale containers within the supply chain.