Hi-Tech-Consulting

Thefts Plague Drug Makers
Wall Street Journal (03/23/10) Efrati, Amir; Rockoff, Jonathan D.

Over the past several years, pharmaceutical products have become popular targets among professional thieves. Some of these stolen prescription medications are sold on the black market in the U.S. or abroad, but an unknown amount also ends up at legitimate pharmacies or healthcare facilities. In one recent incident, thieves stole $75 million worth of antidepressants and other medications from an Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse in Connecticut. Industry experts say this theft is the largest of its kind on record. The Eli Lilly break-in mirrors several other unsolved incidents, including one at warehouse owned by GlaxoSmithKline in Richmond, Va., in 2009 and another several years ago at a Massachusetts facility owned by drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen. All in all, a total of $184 million in prescription medications were stolen in the U.S. last year, a 350 percent increase from 2007, according to supply-chain security consultant FreightWatch International. One security expert at a major pharmaceutical company said that prescription medications have become a more attractive target because they are easier to transport across borders than illegal narcotics. The loosely regulated secondary wholesale market also provides thieves with the opportunity to sell stolen products to brokers and wholesale distributors. In response to the recent rise in prescription-product thefts, some pharmaceutical companies have begun to tighten security around their warehouses and have outfitted supply trucks with monitoring devices. Others have placed global positioning devices or codes on drug containers that can be checked at various points in the supply chain to ensure products are legitimate and to monitor any losses.

Lilly Drugs Stolen in Warehouse Heist
Wall Street Journal (03/17/10) Efrati, Amir; Loftus, Peter

Thieves stole $75 million in drugs from an Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse in Enfield, Conn., last weekend, in what was one of the biggest thefts of pharmaceuticals of all time. During the heist, the thieves disabled the warehouse’s interior alarm system and broke into the building by cutting a hole in the roof and sliding down a rope. The thieves then spent hours inside the warehouse loading dozens of crates of prescription drugs onto a tractor-trailer. The heist at the Eli Lilly warehouse is just the latest in a long strong of thefts to strike the pharmaceutical sector over the last several years. According to Dan Burges, the director of intelligence at the U.S. division of the supply-chain security consultant FreightWatch International, there were 46 drug thefts valued at a total of $184 million in 2009, up from 35 thefts valued at a total of $41 million in 2007. So far this year, there have been 10 thefts of pharmaceuticals valued at a total of $110 million. As a result of these thefts, pharmaceutical companies are taking steps to protect their supply chains, including using tracking devices and services.

Stores Land in Gun-Control Crossfire
Wall Street Journal (03/04/10) O’Connell, Vanessa; Jargon, Julie

The debate between gun-control advocates and supporters of the “open carry” movement, which would permit gun owners to carry holstered pistols in public places, has recently centered on a number of the nation’s major retailers. At this time, businesses have the final say on whether someone is permitted to carry a firearm on their premises. There are a number of major retailers who do not have a specific policy banning guns, such as Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, and Target. These stores have been labeled “OC friendly” by gun advocates while lists are also being made to facilitate boycotts of companies that have no-weapons signs. It is legal to openly carry a loaded handgun in 29 states without any form of government permission. An additional 13 allow an unconcealed loaded handgun with a carry permit. In other states, such as California, where it is only legal to openly carry an unloaded weapon, growing numbers of gun activists have started using OC-friendly businesses as spots to protest what they argue are unfair limits on their permits to carry a concealed weapon. In response to these protests, gun-control activists have begun circulating petitions asking companies like Starbucks to prevent individuals from carrying an unconcealed firearm on their premises. Once such petition has reportedly garnered 28,000 signatures thus far. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union has also issued a statement, saying that Starbucks has not made an effort to “widely engage its workers who are directly affected by open-carry gun laws.”