Human RFID chipmaker VeriChip Corp. said it filed for an initial public offering, but the company did not release information on the number of shares it expects to release or the share price or what it plans to do with the money it raises from its IPO.
VeriChip develops and sells passive RFID systems for identification, as well as active RFID systems for locating and identifying. Recently, the company began marketing VeriMed, a patient identification system used to identify people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate. The glass-encapsulated human RFID microchip relays the patient’s medical history to hospital staff so that the patient can be treated with the appropriate care. Last month, VeriChip announced that 68 medical facilities, including 65 hospitals, had agreed to implement the Veri-Med system for patient identification.
The Food and Drug Administration cleared VeriChip’s products for medical use in October 2004.
VeriChip spokesman John Procter said that only about 60 people in the United States have agreed to be chipped, adding that there are plans to chip mentally disabled patients at a residential center in Chattanooga, Tenn. In addition, Procter said that the company’s chips were injected into deceased Hurricane Katrina victims to help identify them in the aftermath of the hurricane. And although no formal agreements have been made, Procter said that VeriChip has had talks with the Pentagon about chipping military personnel.
Applied Digital said it plans to retain a majority interest in VeriChip, despite the IPO. Applied Digital develops identification and security products for people, animals, food vendors, government agencies, the military, and telecommunications and security vendors.
VeriChip’s Chief Executive Tommy Thompson recently came under fire from privacy advocates Liz McIntyre and Katherine Albrecht, authors of “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.”
The authors point out that after Thompson joined VeriChip’s board of directors last spring, he told CNBC that he would have a microchip implanted under his skin to instill confidence that the chips are necessary and safe. But the former Bush administration Secretary of Health and Human Services and four-term governor of Wisconsin has not gotten chipped.
Thompson’s spokesman said Thompson was not available for comments, but said that his plans were best detailed in an article from the Associated Press. In that article, Thompson said that he is not having second thoughts about the process, but said he wants to wait until VeriChip signs up enough hospitals to use the technology.
