A House committee began reviewing a bill last week which is focused on preventing serious illness from counterfeit drugs. The legislation proposes a nationwide electronic system which will track pills from the manufacturer to the pharmacy.

The new legislation aims to prevent situations like the 2003 Lipitor recall, in which over 200,000 bottles of Lipitor were found to be counterfeit.

Due to rising prescription drug costs, counterfeit medication is a growing market. The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest estimates that by 2010 counterfeit drugs will bring in an annual profit of $75 billion.

The new legislation requires that any counterfeit drugs that are discovered be destroyed. It will also institute a national tracking system that will use a combination of barcodes and radio frequency chips that can be monitored throughout every state.

Defective drug attorneys are working on cases in which serious illness or fatality has occurred due to prescription medication.