DAKAR, 19 March 2009 (IRIN) - Consumers who purchase certain medications will be able to send the label code via free cell phone text message and within seconds receive a text response from the drug manufacturer of whether the drug is legitimate and comes from a safe batch.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that up to 30 percent of pharmaceutical drugs sold in developing countries are fake.
Co-founder of the anti-counterfeit technology company mPedigree, Bright Simons, told IRIN that until now anti-counterfeit tactics have not empowered the consumer. “Consumers are the final decision-makers as to what medication they take, but they have not had a way to verify their medication's safety.” He said existing nano-particle tags, ultraviolet-sensitive labels and holograms do little to enable consumers to protect their health because counterfeiters can reproduce them.
“But if you have more consumer vigilance,” said Simons, “That will be harder to get around.”
Simons co-founded mPedigree, which was named a 2009 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum, with Ashifi Gogo in 2007.
See the full article here http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83555
