How Can Technology Help To Fight Counterfeits?

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a counterfeit medicine as one that is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to its identity and/or source, and this can apply to both branded and generic products. Counterfeits may include medicines with the correct ingredients, the wrong ingredients, no ingredients, insufficient active ingredients or fake packaging. In all cases, however, counterfeits are illegal. They are also dangerous and deadly products as they mislead patients into believing they are taking a medicine to preserve or improve their health while, in reality, they are not getting what they need.

WHO estimates that from 7 to 10 percent of the world's pharmaceuticals are counterfeit. In developing countries where criminals can exploit weaker regulatory systems, this rises to 25 to 50 percent of the pharmaceutical market. Regrettably, counterfeit medicines have become big business: WHO puts the global value of trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals at between US$32 and 46 billion. (WHO, Fact sheet No. 275, 2003).

Why counterfeit pharmaceuticals?

Counterfeiting, especially of high-end products such as medicines, tends to be an extremely lucrative criminal activity. Law enforcement and prosecution of alleged perpetrators can be challenging, and penalties often lenient - hence the growing involvement of organized crime in counterfeit medicines.

More sophisticated technology for copying legitimate labels and packages is now available and facilitates the distribution of fake products that are made to look indistinguishable from legitimate ones. And the growth of e-commerce, allowing the purchase of prescription medicines online, is a key factor in increasing counterfeit trade as it connects consumers directly with suppliers of controlled products outside the legal distribution chain, and outside the regulatory authority of government agencies.

Technology for the fight against counterfeiting

While technology can sometimes add to the problem, it also provides tools that help manufacturers keep one step ahead in combating counterfeiters. Three key principles make up an efficient technological anti-counterfeiting strategy:

Use of harmonized and standardized coding and identification systems for secondary packs of pharmaceuticals;

Use of overt and covert features to authenticate products...