Mexico, RFID and Pharmaceuticals
As covered on RFID Journal and elsewhere, Mexico recently announced that it intends to require the use of RFID to track pallets, cases and individual items for drugs covered under the federal Seguro Popular insurance program, which covers roughly 4 million families.
Interestingly enough, it appears the mandate will require both UHF (pallet and case) and HF (item) passive technology - an interesting concept. Our experience here in the U.S. tells us the largest challenge will not lie in using the technology (it works), but in using multiple frequencies in environments where you have competing frequency traffic (hospitals) and low-tech inventory systems (pharmacies, retailers).
We also spent 9 months in 2005 running an item-level, in-store passive RFID pilot for a global apparel manufacturer and retailer. While the results were fantastic, the Mexican technology ecosystem is at a much earlier stage than the U.S., so expect to see U.S. technology vendors and systems integrators heavily involved in the Seguro Popular RFID rollout, if and when it begins to take hold.
