Fooling the fakes: How to render counterfeiters useless

Denny Bros’ senior marketing executive, Stephie Castling, explains how to stay ahead of the fraudsters.

Terrorist activities are making headline news and increasing people’s general sense of vulnerability. But what about the dangers they could be facing from their over the counter medicines or internet medicines? Clever counterfeiters are keen to make a profit whatever the cost to human life and business.

Counterfeiters are keen to sniff out opportunities and often copy high-value, high-turnover, high-demand drugs. They prey on weaknesses in the supply chain and are responsible for 170,000 deaths worldwide each year which can be related back to counterfeit medicine. 

To minimise the potential impact on pharmaceutical profits and consumer health, manufacturers need to be one-step ahead of fraudsters by being proactive in applying anti-counterfeiting technology to their products.

According to the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, total incidents (worldwide) of pharmaceutical crime increased by 51% between 2011 and 2015 - a statistic that manufacturers cannot afford to ignore.

Of course the EU’s Falsified Medicines Directive is bringing the issue sharply into focus as the 2019 deadline approaches. All pharmaceutical medicines will have to have a unique identifier, such as a two-dimension barcode carrying a serial number, and an anti-tampering device.

A robust chain of custody is what is called for in order to render the counterfeiters’ job useless. Once pharmaceutical products are provided with a unique identification code (which is logged on a central database by the manufacturer) medicines will be verified at the point of dispensing across Europe. The pharmacist or dispenser would scan the product triggering an update of the manufacturers’ database and closing the record on that product so that it is no longer live; thus shoring up the supply chain against fraud.

Many labelling companies are already advising pharmaceutical manufacturers on the best, securest solutions for their packaging and labelling needs. Companies not only need to seek advice on whether their current packaging is meeting the forthcoming legislative requirements, but is it effectively addressing other issues too.

Typical problems include how to accommodate the specifications for different countries in any new labelling strategy. For example, the UK requires a dispensing label while in France a label with French braille is needed. Practical challenges also present themselves such as how to introduce a tamper-free device that is not too difficult for elderly patients to open.

Pharmaceutical industry partners can advise on how best to mix the overt versus covert ratio of anti-tamper and counterfeiting printing solutions suitable for their products.

There are key differences between overt and covert protection. Overt features are clearly visible and do not require detection. Covert solutions offer an extra level of security and could include UV light or temperature-revealed hidden text.

High-level covert solutions will contain some form of taggant that is only visible or detectible through more sophisticated hand-held readers, which range from laser pens to dedicated readers with controlled distribution. These may include acoustic tags and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags.

Guaranteeing a product’s authenticity brings with it numerous business advantages: a better managed inventory system, an ability to streamline product recalls thus minimising their financial impact, being able to demonstrate that compliance with product security is paramount, increased brand protection and heightened public safety through better traceability in the supply chain.

Clever strategies would encompass deliberate print imperfections incorporated into labels, the use of microtext (only legible through a magnifying glass), 2D matrix codes revealing encoded data in text or numeric form and complex holograms.

Another deterrent to counterfeiting high-value pharmaceuticals, is to hide RFID tags under labels or within the packaging. The product can then be scanned and tracked by RFID readers to match the data to medical databases. Business productivity can significantly be boosted too, as taking an inventory with a RFID handheld reader is 25 times faster than with a barcode reader.

The industry is adapting well to the challenge of staying ahead of the counterfeiters as more manufacturers include anti-counterfeiting devices within their products.

Incisive and well-informed decision-making by management in partnership with key suppliers is what may make the difference between counterfeiters snatching a huge share of their market or manufacturers being able to out-run and out-think these stealthy imposters.