BLUE BELL, Pa., April 4, 2006 – ODIN technologies and Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today unveiled the results of the Pharmaceutical RFID: Battle of the Frequencies, the first ever scientific high-frequency (HF) vs. ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) evaluation geared specifically toward the pharmaceutical industry’s stringent requirements for serialized item-level product tracking. In item-level tagging, individual products receive RFID tags, as opposed to one tag for a full container of product or one tag for a pallet.

The two companies collaborated on this research to inject scientific facts into the long-running debate over which frequency is best suited for the pharmaceutical supply chain.

The pharmaceutical industry is being driven by regulators at the state and federal level to take additional steps to ensure the safety and authenticity of medicines. In the February 2004 report, Combating Counterfeit Drugs, the FDA concluded that, "Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) tagging of products by manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers appears to be the most promising approach to reliable product tracking and tracing…. Most importantly, reliable RFID technology will make the copying of medications either extremely difficult or unprofitable."

"RFID is clearly important to improving consumer drug safety. However, much of the recent debate about the merits of high frequency (HF) or ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID at the item level has been founded on anecdotes and narrow business interests. The debate amongst regulators, end-users, and supply chain participants is: which RFID frequency will work best at the item level? In the report Pharmaceutical RFID: Battle of the Frequencies, ODIN technologies’ scientific analysis of pharmaceutical item level tracking sets the record straight," commented Patrick J. Sweeney II, ODIN technologies president and CEO. He added, "The research presents solid, physics-based answers to help guide regulators and drug manufacturers in making successful decisions to improve drug safety."

Todd Skrinar, partner, Unisys Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice, said, "As a key secure supply chain provider for pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesale distributors and chain drug stores, we recognize that item serialization in pharma is a complex issue with many dimensions. But questions over the right frequency standard have slowed the pace of adoption for too long. The goal with this study was to establish a clean, clear data set that the healthcare community can use to make fact-based decisions. Our interpretation of the results suggests a new rule set for item-level frequency that addresses all the major material characteristics including solid dose, liquids and metals."

Benchmark Objectives and Scope

Sponsored by Unisys, who collaborated with ODIN in the design of testing protocols and use cases, the benchmark addresses the industry’s heated debate over which frequency, high (HF) or ultra-high (UHF) works best for item-level pharmaceutical tracking and authentication. The testing focused on scientific evaluation of various tags and then pinpointed several popular applications or use-case testing scenarios. Significant collaboration with pharmaceutical clients and partners, including manufacturers and distributors, made the tests particularly salient to a broad audience in the pharmaceutical world.

All of the testing was conducted with hardware and tags that are available in production quantities to end-users today. No prototype or hand-built artifacts were allowed in the research as they are untested in production environments and prototype demonstrations are often misleading.

Scientific analysis provided the technical baseline for comparing the core drivers of HF and UHF tag performance. Metrics include:

* Read Distance – how far away item level tags can be read by RFID readers

* Orientation Sensitivity – how well can tags be read when they are oriented away from a reader antenna; this is particularly important for uses in totes and for authentication reads performed by drug distributors

* Material Dependence – how well can tags be read when on liquid bottles or blister packs as opposed to powder or pill filled bottles

* Maximum Encode Speed – how fast can RFID tags be encoded

* Tag Quality – how consistent is tag quality for each frequency.

After completing scientific tag testing, ODIN technologies and Unisys extended this study to include RFID use cases typical in the pharmaceutical supply chain. The team used standard pill bottles, liquid filled bottles and blister packs for the testing. The key tests included:

* In-motion item-level verification – this test simulates an RFID read on a pharmaceutical packaging line

* Item-to-case aggregation – this test evaluates how successful each frequency is for reading multiple closely packed items at a short distance

* Item level reads for pallet stacked cases – this test evaluates how successful each frequency is at reading items when packed in cases on pallets at distances common for supply chain applications.

Orientation Sensitivity Chart

These use cases uncover the core requirements of RFID as an e-Pedigree and product authentication tool in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This step goes beyond mere demonstration or theoretical analysis to provide direct evidence of HF and UHF RFID performance in a real world setting. Since there is a wide variety in RFID tag and reader performance, multiple UHF and HF tags and readers were utilized throughout the process. The final performance analysis was based on the best performing reader and tag combinations in each frequency.

Accessing the Benchmark

The complete RFID Pharma Benchmark is available for purchase at: ODINtechnologies.com/store.

About ODIN technologies

ODIN technologies is the leader in the physics of RFID infrastructure testing, deployment and software. ODIN technologies leverages its team of RF engineers, physicists and software developers combined with its laboratory facilities to provide RFID consulting services to major retailers, pharmaceutical companies, consumer goods manufacturers, United States government agencies and other RFID adopters. In addition to client deployment services, ODIN technologies is also the publisher of the RFID Benchmark Series, the industry’s first and most referenced head to head performance analysis of leading RFID components. ODIN’s President and CEO, Patrick J. Sweeney II is also author of RFID for Dummies published by John Wiley & Sons. ODIN technologies is privately held and has labs and offices in Dulles, VA. For additional information please visit ODINtechnologies.com.

About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide technology services and solutions company. Our consultants apply Unisys expertise in consulting, systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure, and server technology to help our clients achieve secure business operations. We build more secure organizations by creating visibility into clients’ business operations. Leveraging Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise, we make visible the impact of their decisions – ahead of investments, opportunities and risks. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.