Article: On-Dosage And On-Packaging Solutions To Combat Counterfeit Medicine

By Roland Meylan, AlpVision SA

The number of counterfeit medicines seized at border customs checks is increasing dramatically and concerns all countries, including the ones with well established and legitimate supply chains. The adoption of security features for protection of pharmaceutical products against counterfeiting becomes necessary. Such features must not be confused with serialization codes, barcodes, matrix codes or even RFID tags. These technologies are being used to track and trace pharmaceutical products along the supply chain rather than to locate counterfeits.

Due to the variety of packaging means used for medicines (carton boxes, blister packs, plastic bottles, syringes, glass vials with flip-off tops, etc.) it is necessary to adapt the security solutions to these different types of packaging and dosage.

This article describes various processes and features which can successfully uncover fake medicines being applied to packaging and dosage. Overt and covert security features, machine based and human sensory perception based "genuine-or-fake" verification are considered as well as local and remote verification. Special attention is paid to the various costs which will be incurred on deployment of a worldwide anti-counterfeiting program. Processes based on software and digital imaging technology are described in contrast to security solutions using additional security elements or substances.