Drug makers target counterfeits

DELRAN, N.J. -- Big pharmaceutical companies are testing new tracking technology they hope will help them spot counterfeit drugs before they reach consumers' medicine cabinets.

By putting tags that transmit radio waves on medicine bottles sent to drugstores, company officials think they will be able to detect fake drugs that aren't moving through usual supply chains.

The drug companies' concerns about counterfeiting have aroused skepticism among some who see the issue as a way to scare Americans away from buying cheaper drugs from foreign countries. Still, efforts to implement radio frequency identification technology, or RFID, are gaining momentum.