DEA deal develops e-commerce

The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a $1.9 million contract toPEC Solutions Inc. to continue work on developing electronic commerce systemsfor the agency's Office of Diversion Control.

PEC, a professional services firm that specializes in Web-enabling projects,will expand the agency's ability to follow business-to-business drug transactionsamong 50,000 distributors, manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies.

Under the contract, the company also will design and support an electronicprescription system to enable DEA-registered firms to transmit prescriptionsdigitally to participating pharmacies.

In addition to improving the agency's ability to track the distributionof controlled drugs while shrinking the use of "paper-based processes,"the electronic commerce system also will help accuracy and security.

"The system will help eliminate prescription illegibility errors anddeliver security, authentication and confidentially," PEC spokesman JohnMcNeilly said.