A Letter From The President

To All,

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope your holiday break was both enjoyable and safe. It would appear that our industry survived both the Thanksgiving AND Christmas breaks without any incidents of large scale thefts – be it from a truck, trailer or a warehouse. That’s something to be proud of. It shows the joint collaboration of those within our “Coalition” is truly working for the benefit of all.

I’ve got a number of things to share with you in this correspondence, beginning with where I’d like to take this group in 2010.

• We’ve been offered some administrative assistance with developing and refining pharma cargo theft intelligence, as well as keeping our roster current and managing all of the incoming and outgoing information. I plan on taking full advantage of that offer.

• This year each “alert” will have some sort of coding system for reference purposes. RxPatrol will still be used to document all incidents of theft but other intelligence will be cataloged for ease of retrieval by those that want to do research.

• We’ve agreed to work more closely with the FDA in both education and communication - relative to the cargo theft issue. In a future e-mail I’ll provide some guidance offered by the FDA on reporting pharma cargo thefts to them. This was developed in a joint meeting, held in December, with members of both those within pharma and the FDA themselves. In that meeting it was suggested that the pharma industry create a “task force” to work together with the FDA on cargo theft issues. Because of our well established position, as well as reputation, it will be our group that will serve as the desired task force agent.

• In additional to our annual meeting I’d like to hold at least one additional seminar – the first involving a “mock” response (table-top exercise) to a cargo theft. Past victims could potentially offer insights into some of the issues they were forced to deal with when they suffered thefts. Key law enforcement groups would also be invited to describe for us what they would be interested in for information.

• We’ll endeavor to develop additional contacts with other Federal agencies (DEA, Customs, TSA, ICE, FBI, etc…) and work to familiarize those individuals with who we are, what we do, how to get ahold of us, etc…

• This year we’ll spend some additional time analyzing and “mapping” areas of cargo theft to more accurately identify locations of concern. In concert with that it might be worth considering some educational programs for law enforcement in those specific areas – possibly in concert with the regional transportation security councils. As an example of that type of program, Purdue currently sponsors a “Law Enforcement Liaison” Group that performs a similar function across the country, educating law enforcement and public health entities about prescription drug abuse. I think doing something similar with cargo theft could also be viewed in a similar, positive light.

• I think it would be beneficial to introduce our group to the principal “return” vendors here in the United States - to identify their in-transit security processes and procedures when moving material for destruction – as well as share best practices. We should endeavor to obtain memberships from these respective companies within our organization.

• Later this month I’ll send out information describing vendors that offer “secure” truck/trailer drop sites. There are now at least three different companies that offer this type of dedicated service. No specific endorsements will be made but general information will be provided that can be used for research.

• This year it might be beneficial to develop a reference list of high risk/high value carriers that are specifically interested in transporting pharmaceutical products. Again, no endorsements would be made but a quick reference list of those with experience in that particular type of transport, and who have sufficient insurance and DOT safety/security qualifications could be worthwhile. If nothing else, the competition such a listing might generate can only work to enhance existing security procedures.

• As I stated at our annual meeting, I think it would be beneficial to try to meet with leaders from both the “National Association of Truckstop Operators (NATSO) and the “International Warehouse Logistics Association” (IWLA) to let them know who we are and discuss areas of mutual concern.

• We’ll continue to support the HDMA and efforts to educate their respective membership about preventing pharmaceutical cargo theft. Right now the Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research, an HDMA partner, is proposing their own supply chain security seminar, to be held in Old Town Alexandria in early May. Members of our  group will be participating in that event.   

• We’ll also continue to support the “Messenger Courier Association of the Americas” (MCAA) as they continue to research security guidelines for the courier industry when it comes to transporting pharmaceutical products.

An aggressive agenda but one which I think is more than attainable in the year 2010.     

A very complimentary article about our group’s activities was recently published in “Pharmaceutical Commerce”. See:

http://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/frontEnd/1345-pharmaceutical_logistics_theft_in_transit_cargo_security_coalition.html

IMPORTANT For those who are current members, and wish to attend the US Customs annual C-TPAT conference in Anaheim in March the seminar registration will be conducted via an on-line registration process beginning tomorrow, January 6, 2010.  Registration will open at 12:00 Noon Eastern Standard Time (9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time). There are only 1,200 slots open for attendance in this three day, two session event. If you are a member and are interested in attending it’s important that you register as close to the opening time as possible. Literally, within a few hours time, that event will be fully booked.

Brad Elrod of Pfizer has a new office telephone number. Brad acts as one of our group’s experts on both the CCSP and C-TPAT programs. He also helps to direct our group’s activities, particularly when I’m unavailable. His new contact information is listed below:

Brad Elrod

Director, Global Conveyance Security

Office:    484-865-0914

Cell:  (215) 534-4054

E-Mail:  Bradley.Elrod@Pfizer.com

I look forward to working with all of you in the coming year. For those who attended our annual event in November you saw that, overall, pharma cargo theft rates decreased in 2009 and recoveries significantly increased.  Those are our true goals and improvements can always be made. Many WILL be made in 2010.

As always I’m also open to any ideas or suggestions you might have to improve or expand on what we do. Please feel free to contact me at any time with your comments.

-- Chuck Forsaith