ScryptoTrace app helps fight counterfeiting

Swiss security company U-Nica has developed a recognition app, ScryptoTrace, which enables a continuous authentication of pharmaceutical products

ScryptoTrace, is a pattern recognition method, which detects certain codes on a label or packaging that are otherwise imperceptible to the eye, according to the company.

The system uses digital markings that are integrated by print into drug packaging. The codes are generated at the scryptoTrace server by the pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves in order to register the drugs as authentic products.

To use the system, samples at various checkpoints are checked with a standard smartphone or a tablet. Just photographing the coded imprint is sufficient and the app responds as to whether the product is genuine or counterfeit.

The result will then be transmitted, along with information such as date, time, location and user identity via the mobile network or data connection to the corporate headquarters.

The pharmaceutical company learns immediately where counterfeit or gray market products are in circulation. The producer can evaluate the collected data and efficiently identify the risk and quantify, according to U-Nica.

As the technology uses conventional smartphones and tablets, it can be used globally and offline, which makes it very user friendly said Alfred Rutz, CEO of U-Nica.

He continued: “To successfully combat counterfeiting it is not only sufficient to identify plagiarism. Pharmaceutical companies should also know about how exactly the forgeries reach their distribution chain, where the gray market emerges and how the goods are being moved.

"A key advantage [of scryptoTrace] is that employees, inspectors, customs, police or other partners along the national or global distribution chain are able to select a product and test it, without special training or expensive readers."