What's Being Stolen

Therapeutic Medications such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, cancer drugs, blood thinning drugs, insulin, epilepsy medication, are among the pharmaceutical medications that thieves are targeting. While Prescription Pain Medications are stolen as well it is interesting the amount of therapeutic products being targeted. Consumer Care Products such as baby formula, antacids, band-aids, pain relievers, inhalers, and toothpaste are being stolen in transport as well.

Stop Loss

There have been major cargo thefts of millions of dollars in pharmaceutical drugs while billions are lost to counterfeit medications being smuggled inside cargoes. There were two cargo thefts in 2010 that exceeded $10 million in losses. In 2010, pharmaceuticals once again had the highest per‐incident value of all cargo thefts, averaging $3.78 million. The level of theft of Consumer Care products has also skyrocketed in the past five years. There were 54 thefts of Consumer Care products in 2010, representing a 575% increase from 2006.

The high values of the stolen pharmaceutical cargos don't represent all of the loss a company experiences when a theft has occurred. When a cargo theft is experienced, companies have to make more revenue to make up for the loss. "Depending on a company's operating ratio, it takes $10 to $15 in increased revenue to make up for every dollar lost through theft." By preventing even one theft of pharma products, adopters would realize a return on investment by employing the GeoLokTM. Pharmaceutical companies can rest easy knowing that their cargos are protected by the hardened physical security and the superior monitoring capabilities provided by the GeoLok.

Chain of Custody/ Product Integrity

According to a Stanford University study, the most significant levels of improvements from adopting cargo security solutions were related to product safety (38 percent reduction in theft/loss/pilferage, 37 percent reduction in tampering) which is logical since these benefits are most closely related to security investments. To ensure the chain of custody of a shipment, the GeoLokTM provides visibility into the movement and custody of a container as the container moves along it route, a record of its location and ownership is captured in real-time.

Viewing the chain of custody in real-time allows companies to answer questions such as where is a container currently, where was it on a specific date, and most importantly, who had access to the container at what points in time.

The TrakLok Solution provides adopters with the ability to:

- verify and maintain security of the container;

- provide chain of custody verification in real-time;

- insure that containers have not been tampered with or accessed ;

TrakLok's technologies provide a time-definite and controlled chain of custody that will help adopters improve product integrity. TrakLogTM shipment monitoring enables improved product safety, ensuring product authenticity, and protection of a client's brand name.

Customer Protection

Compromised drugs are increasingly introduced into the healthcare system and are considered a threat to the public health by the US Food and Drug Administration. "The agency fears that some stolen products have caused adverse patient reactions due to improper storage and handling." Thieves attempt to sell and re-introduce pharma products back into the legitimate supply chain through the "gray market." Dangers to the consumer revolve around the product being outside the legitimate chain of custody and the criminals' ability to adulterate, counterfeit or otherwise affect the product so that it is unsafe for consumption.

Avoidance of Liability / Brand Protection

Compromised drugs continue to infiltrate the global supply chain at an increasingly alarming rate. Even if a stolen container of drugs are recovered, pharmaceutical companies don't want to assume the liability and typically, end up destroying these products because of the lost chain of custody. TrakLok's technology solutions track shipments from end-to-end to ensure protection of a brand's products and reduce risk associated with cargoes that can be tampered with.

Real-Time Visibility

IBM business consultant Stephan Reidyan noted that when IBM started looking at security solutions they realized the ROI "resided in all of the supply chain information that would now be available in real-time." End-to-end real time performance monitoring would provide data for predictive modeling in order to generate inventory or lead time reduction benefits.

"The market requires container tracking because there is no one player that is universally responsible for everything in the container transportation process. This leads to ownership confusion, inefficiency, and human error along the supply chain. Because current efforts in container transport are heavily based on manual labor, errors are abundant, with containers being frequently misplaced and misdirected."

The GeoLok device provides real-time updates on transit and inventory information for your ERP systems improving the management and storage of container assets. Global visibility and tracking – The GeoLokTM and TrakLogTM combined service provides real-time tracking via satellite, cellular, and wireless mesh technologies for an unrivaled asset visibility system.

Sources:

"Box Tracking: Big Blue and Blue Ships: IBM and Maersk team up." Bdp1 Consulting. Philadelphia, PA, October, 2005.

FreightWatch International. "FreightWatch Annual Report, US Cargo Theft: 2010." Austin, TX. February 18, 2011.

Albrecht, John. "Prevention Equals Profit." Security Magazine. December 1, 2004.

Peleg-Gillai, Barchi, Gauri Bhat and Leslet Sept. "Innovators in Supply Chain Security: Better Security Drives Business Value." Stanford University. July, 2006.

Combating Counterfeit Drugs: A Report of the Food and Drug Administration Annual Update, May 18, 2005, page 1. Available at http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2005/NEW01179.html

Quinley, Kevin. "Drug And Device Heists: New Risks And Risk Mgt. Plans." Life Science Leader. March, 2011.

Liard, Mike. "Cargo Container Security Tracking RFID, Cellular, and Satellite Communications for Supply Chain Management and National Security." ABI Research. Oyster Bay, NY. 2007.