FreightWatch International: March 2010 Cargo Theft Report

FreightWatch International, an industry leader in providing cargo theft intelligence through data collection, analysis, and customized reporting, released their monthly report on cargo theft for March 2010.

FreightWatch recorded a 13% decrease in North American cargo theft from February to March.

Of the 65 recorded thefts in March, the highest frequencies were seen in California, Texas, Florida, and the York region of Ontario with 20, seven, six, and five reported theft incidents, respectively.

By commodity, pharmaceuticals experienced five incidents in March, matching their February numbers.

The five pharmaceutical thefts in the report include the huge $76,000,000 Eli Lilly warehouse theft in Connecticut making March’s approximate value of cargo theft to be in excess of $77,000,000. The thefts for March include:

• March 5th a theft of a trailer at a truck stop with undisclosed pharmaceuticals worth $400,000 in Dallas, Texas.
• March 13th a theft of a trailer at a truck stop with undisclosed pharmaceuticals worth $365,000 in Richwood, Kentucky.
• March 13th the warehouse theft of prescription drugs out of an Eli Lilly warehouse in Enfield, Connecticut worth valued at $76,000,000.
• March 27th theft of a trailer with undisclosed pharmaceuticals at a warehouse in Mississauga, Ontario worth $322,000.
• March 29th theft of a trailer at a public access parking lot in Avondale, Arizona with undisclosed value of pharmaceuticals.

The issue of pharmaceutical cargo theft energizes the need for material screening of products within the supply chain, from manufacturer to dispenser, to properly protect consumers everywhere.

As the value and prevalence increases, so too does the potential risk to consumers.

To read the entire report from Freightwatch International, visit: http://www.freightwatchintl.com/.

To learn more about supply chain security solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/.

Drug Companies Need to Improve Their Screening for Quality and Counterfeits

By: Alan Clock, Senior Vice President, XStream Systems, Inc.

Recent massive recalls on generic drugs imported from overseas contract manufacturers are making significant reverberations within the pharmaceutical industry and making the case for more stringent screening of drugs both in finished form and in raw materials.

Manufacturers in the past have seemingly been immune to this level of public scrutiny because it has often been perceived that their products are at their most pristine at the point of manufacture however with the continued proliferation of contract manufacture of product and raw material sourcing from companies located in lesser developed countries the need for more robust screening from point of manufacture through the supply chain seems obvious.

These global recalls are not just happening to the smaller generic companies that contract their manufacturing overseas but also the generic divisions of big Pharma companies are feeling the sting of substandard product within their brand.

Although the liability to the stakeholders of these impacted companies is great, the impact and consequence to the consumers of these inferior medications should remain paramount. For those in the know within the pharmaceutical supply chain, the message and actions seem clear.

XStream Systems supports the concept of screening products throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain from raw materials, to the point of manufacture, packaging, throughout the supply chain and finally at the point of dispensing to the patient.

The level of screening required is important as well, realize that all of the poor quality recently recalled product in question were passed or would have been passed on to the consumer through the process of pedigree, serialization, bar codes and RFID tags.

End-to-end screening does not have to be costly, overly time consuming or onerous to the various members of the supply chain. Current technologies exist to rapidly screen raw materials at the point of production while XStream’s XT250 has a robust solution of analytical testing of products within the sealed container in the supply chain. At the point of dispense there are a variety of technologies available currently which test for product quality and medication errors before they reach the consumer. We at XStream believe that the most effective way of protecting the product is to employ a variety of solutions at each link of the supply chain.

As the world continues to move to a global economy and the pieces of the pharmaceutical supply chain scatter beyond borders a watchful eye towards quality and security are in the interest to all of those who either make a business of or consume pharmaceuticals.