Legislation awaiting the governor's signature would give California pharmacists, medical wholesalers and pharmaceutical manufacturers until at least 2015 – four years beyond the current deadline – to create an electronic tracking system for prescription drugs.
State lawmakers passed the bill last week, and it was still generating praise yesterday from representatives of drugstore chains attending a national industry meeting in San Diego.
“We should breathe a big collective sigh of relief,” said Karen Peterson with Sears Holdings Corp., the parent of Kmart. She was one of about 3,000 people at the downtown convention center for the conference, which was sponsored by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not said whether he will sign the bill. Most legislation passed in recent weeks has been stalled by the deadlock over the state's new budget.
It's the third time in four years that California officials have put off requiring every drug container sold in the state to have a serial number so it can be tracked electronically from the manufacturer to the patient, in much the same way that delivery services track packages.
Advocates of a so-called electronic pedigree system using bar codes or tiny transmitters affixed to medicine bottles said it's the best way to keep tainted and counterfeit medicines from reaching consumers.
But the industry hasn't settled on a single technology, and pharmacists are worried about the expense of buying hardware and software, which could cost from $10,000 to $40,000 per drugstore.
Originally, an electronic pedigree system was supposed to be in place by last year. Then lawmakers extended the deadline by two years after the drug industry said it would not be ready in time. Another two-year delay was granted in March by the state Board of Pharmacy.
The bill passed last week by the Legislature sets a staggered timeline for adopting an electronic pedigree system, starting with drugmakers in 2015 and followed by wholesalers in 2016 and retailers in 2017.
“I understand that it's a large task, but extending the deadline three times isn't necessary,” said Michael Russo, a health care advocate in Los Angeles for the nonprofit California Public Interest Research Group. “It's not that the technology isn't there or that the problem is too big to solve. We just don't have the will along the entire (drug) supply chain to do it.”
The pharmacy board asked the Legislature to take up the latest bill. It initially pushed for earlier deadlines to create the pedigree system, but agreed to the later dates after negotiations between Schwarzenegger's office and the drug industry, said Virginia Herold, the board's executive director.
Any move by Congress to mandate a national electronic drug tracking system before 2015 would pre-empt the California requirements.
Last year Congress ordered the Federal Drug Administration to draw up standards for a national tracking system by March 2010, but the directive stopped short of setting a deadline for launching a system.
Keith Darce: (619) 293-1020; keith.darce@uniontrib.com
