We’re excited to share a few photographs from the LONART service launch event from September 22nd, 2011!

Above from left to right: Representative of Governor of Lagos State, Mr Ifeanyi Atueyi MD (publisher of the Pharmanews), Dr. Paul Orhii (NAFDAC Director-General), and Prince Julius Adelusi Adeluyi (chairman of the occasion and former Nigeria minister of Health).

Above from left to right: Mr Ifeanyi Atueyi MD (publisher of the Pharmanews), Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu (Representative of the Minister of Health), Dr. Paul Orhii (NAFDAC Director-General), Prince Julius Adelusi Adeluyi (chairman of the occasion and former Nigeria minister of Health), Mr. Lawrence Nwosu (Sproxil Country Sales Manager), and Dr. O Chukwuka (Chairman of Greenlife Pharmaceuticals, wearing green striped tie and glasses).

Above from left to right: Representative of Governor of Lagos State, Mr Ifeanyi Atueyi MD (publisher of the Pharmanews), Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu (Representative of the Minister of Health), Dr. Paul Orhii (NAFDAC Director-General), and Prince Julius Adelusi Adeluyi (chairman of the occasion and former Nigeria minister of Health).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

Contact:

Meliza Anne Mitra

Meliza@sproxil.com

 

Sproxil Announces Alliance with Greenlife Pharmaceutical Limited

and Bliss GVS Pharma Limited to Protect LONART DS From Counterfeiting

First Cross-National Collaboration Between India and Nigeria Offers Counterfeit Protection

for Popular Anti-Malarial Drug.

 

Cambridge, MA, September 22, 2011 — Sproxil, a U.S.-based company that provides world-class brand protection in emerging markets through software and services that work anywhere there are mobile phones,  today announced the establishment of an alliance with Greenlife Pharmaceutical Limited, a Nigeria-based distributor for prescription medications, and Bliss GVS Pharma Limited, an India-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company. Providing protection for the popular anti-malarial drug LONART, the partnership marks Sproxil’s first cross-national collaboration between India and Nigeria, allowing Nigerians to verify the authenticity of a crucial anti-malaria drug.

To maintain the integrity of the LONART Brand, Greenlife Pharmaceuticals and LONART manufacturer Bliss GVS Pharma have instituted a Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) to provide customers a way to verify the authenticity of their product at the point of purchase. Powered by Sproxil advanced technology, the same anti-counterfeiting services were launched by NAFDAC in Lagos last year and continue to prove successful in creating unsafe harbours for counterfeiters.

Sproxil ‘s Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA) technology capitalizes on technologies that already exist and are readily accessible and easily understood by all levels of society – namely cellular phone SMS capabilities and scratch-off lottery-style labels. The company’s services allow end consumers to verify with a simple free text message that they are not purchasing counterfeit medication.

The recent LONART counterfeiting episode, successfully intercepted by NAFDAC officials illustrated the need to collaborate with other stakeholders on a way to abolish counterfeit drugs. Gagan Harsh, General Manager of Bliss GVS Pharma states, “while the direct impact on this service in controlling counterfeiting as a menace is yet to be seen, the start has been quite promising and things seem to be moving in the right direction.”

Counterfeit medicines are alarmingly prevalent in developing societies and are an issue that has increasingly plagued Greenlife Pharmaceutical’s flagship medication, LONART. “I am quite pleased that [Greenlife Pharmaceuticals and Bliss GVS Pharma] chose to protect not just their product, but Nigerians as well,” states Sproxil Director, Mr. Tomi Davies, “[the genuine LONART medication is] saving countless lives.”

Although the launch event is officially set for September 22^nd, the MAS for LONART has already commenced. Within a short span of time more than 10,000 people have already authenticated their LONART purchases.

About Greenlife Pharmaceuticals

Greenlife Pharmaceuticals Limited, a family-owned partnership business based in Nigeria, is committed to sales, distribution and marketing of best in class quality and affordable brands of pharmaceutical products in its bid to promote healthy living. Its primary business focus is on healthcare delivery, with the vision of “being a vanguard of healthy living and a choice companion to all her publics.” The company has, over time, introduced some pharmaceutical products of various therapeutic segments which have become brand leaders into the Nigerian markets: Anti-Malarials, Anti-Infectives, Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Helminthes, Anti-Hypertensive, Laxatives, and Multivitamins, among others. The company’s products are also marketed in some other countries in the West Coast of Africa.

 

About Bliss GVS Pharma

BLISS GVS Pharma is an India-based, WHO-cGMP Certified company that has been manufacturing over 100 different pharmaceutical products for over 26 years, with products selling in over 50 countries. These products are available in various dosage forms, ranging from tablets to suppositories. Bliss is one of the fastest growing, medium-sized Pharmaceutical companies in India, and has a strong presence in generics in multiple dosage forms. Bliss GVS’s brands, such as LONART and ALAXIN, are some of the leading brands in African countries and are the preferred Anti-Malarial Products among the Medical Practitioners.

 

About Sproxil

Sproxil provides world-class brand protection for emerging markets through software and services that work anywhere there are mobile phones. Delivering automatic protection, simple labels and robust back-end analytics with its Mobile Product Authentication^TM (MPA) solution, Sproxil offers a comprehensive anti-counterfeiting strategy for cash-based societies, one that enables consumers to text message an item-unique code for a rapid response that confirms a brand’s genuineness. Simple, easy to use and with no consumer capital investment, the Acumen Fund-backed solution – provisioned on three continents – offers the world’s only patented, consumer SMS verification service. Our solution also helps companies connect directly to their consumers through customized text message responses and ads that specifically target those demographics with known buying behaviors. Learn more at www.sproxil.com.

Sproxil is pleased to welcome Paul W. Chang to our Board of Advisors. Our official announcement is here. Paul is the Global Business Strategy Lead, Emerging Technologies for IBM Software Group. We are extremely excited to have Paul contribute to our team as he brings more than 20 years of experience in technology and market development including significant work on global supply chain issues, RFID, pharma, biotech and optical network technologies. Paul deeply understands the issues surrounding counterfeit medicines and recently appeared in a series of IBM ads that promote the use of drug serialization as a means to combat the counterfeiting of medicines including this one.

We also want to thank Joseph Steig for his work on our Board of Advisors. Joseph, Director of Venture Well and CFO at Long River Ventures, focuses on helping early stage companies, especially with a financial view toward securing funding. His contributions helped Sproxil to close our Series A financing round with Acumen Fund.  With his term on our Board of Advisors now completed, Joseph will continue to work with other ventures to help them achieve the same successes as Sproxil.

Government mandated item-unique serialization initiatives continue to face challenges. Below is an interesting piece on challenges with government mandates on serialization, with views from the Indian pharmaceutical sector. The time for mandates will come. In the short term, let’s encourage voluntary company participation so that government and pharma companies alike can understand the costs AND benefits item-level serialization with patient-oriented product validation bring to the ecosystem.
Chemical Weekly – March 22, 2011:

The pharma industry in the country,especially the small and medium scaleunits, has asked the Drug ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI) not to amendthe Drugs & Cosmetic Act to makethe implementation of 2D barcode/UID (unique identity code) mandatoryfor the domestic market. Instead ofmaking the 2D barcode/UID mandatory,the industry asked the DCGI toimplement the track and trace systemfor which there is already a provisionin the Act.

At a meeting convened bythe DCGI on the issue recently, the industryis learnt to have apprised the authoritiesthat as a concept there shouldbe track and trace of medicines frommanufacturing to retail using softwaresystem, but practically it is not possiblein India till the time the whole supplychain along with the manufacturingis automated through web and relatedsoftware.

Industry representatives saidthat even in USA, where most of thepharmacies (retail) are automated,the authorities have not been able toachieve the same and it is not mandatory.They have done the same in the stateof California (2D and UID) on trialbasis and the result is that drugs havebecome more expensive due to shortagesas manufacturers are not equippedwith 2D and UID and cannot supply themedicines.

The industry also pleadedthat as the implementation of the newsystem involves an investment of aboutRs.1 to 2 crores, it should be done on atrial basis or in stages. They suggestedthat larger companies who are alreadyusing such systems share their experienceon how effective it is to controlspurious drugs and the costs.

The industryis learnt to have categoricallytold the authorities that if the Act isamended to make 2D barcode/UIDmandatory, most of the small andmedium companies will have noother option but to shut down as theywill not be able to comply with thenew system as the current manpower,packaging machines, computer hardwareand software have to be upgradedand new equipment to implement2D and UID have to be purchased.

Investment Will Help Sproxil Build Sales Teams, Expand into India and Kenya, and Make Improvements to the Technology
New York, NY (PRWEB) March 22, 2011
Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund addressing poverty in South Asia and East Africa, today announced an investment in Sproxil, Inc., a company that provides a Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) solution that enables consumers to verify that the pharmaceutical product they are buying is genuine. The $1.8 million investment aims to help Sproxil to build its sales teams in the U.S. and Nigeria; to begin Sproxil’s expansion into India and Kenya; and to provide further improvements to the technology.

“With a decade of experience, Acumen Fund continues to invest in innovative businesses that have the potential to improve millions of lives and revolutionize emerging industries,” said Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund. “Sproxil will help combat the multi-billion dollar counterfeit drug market, empower customers and give them the resources to make informed pharmaceutical purchasing decisions. We will also gain key insights into the dynamics and possibilities of mobile technology, an increasingly critical tool for improving the lives of billions in the developing world, which we can then share with the community at large.”

In 2008 Dr. Ashifi Gogo, a Holekamp Family Ph.D. Innovation Fellow at Dartmouth College who grew up in Ghana, founded Sproxil. He incorporated the company in 2009 with the mission to make it harder for pharmaceutical counterfeiters to operate. Counterfeit products pose a serious threat to public health and safety worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 30% of drugs sold in developing nations are counterfeit with the counterfeit drug market estimated at $200 billion by the World Customs Organization (WCO). In addition, up to 50% of some medicines in specific developing countries, including Ghana and Pakistan, are substandard. These substandard drugs – which do not have the correct potency of the legitimate drug – have led to a significant healthcare crisis both in terms of number of deaths (700,000 deaths from fake malaria and TB drugs alone) and increased drug resistance in treating diseases, which will become an issue in the longer term. In Ghana alone, local authorities working with the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) discovered fake and substandard versions of thirteen vital anti-malarial drugs spread across multiple locations in the country.

“With the counterfeit drug market on the rise in Africa, we felt the need to develop a simple, efficient and cost-effective way for customers to verify the authenticity of medication prior to purchasing them. Given the prevalence of mobile technology throughout the world, it made sense to use a technology that was already in every customer’s pocket,” said Dr. Ashifi Gogo, co-Founder and CEO, Sproxil, Inc. “Acumen Fund’s investment will allow us to expand our business into additional countries and improve our technology, and we look forward to working closely with them in the next phase of our growth.”

Sproxil’s MPA solution allows consumers to verify that the product they are buying is genuine by using a mobile phone and a simple, free text message. Sproxil uses a scratch card method, similar to that used for replenishing cellular talk-time, to allow users to reveal a one-time-use code on drugs and text the code to a “911 for fake drugs” number which is identical on all cellular networks within a country. A response is dispatched from Sproxil’s servers, indicating whether the drug is genuine or fake. If a fake product is found, a consumer is given a hotline number to call in order to report the fake product. The hotline is a Sproxil call center that currently reports the fake product to the Nigerian Agency for Food, Drug and Administrative Control (NAFDAC) for further investigation. In other countries, the counterfeit product is reported to the appropriate authorities.

Sproxil capitalizes on technologies that already exist and are readily accessible and easily understood by all levels of society – namely cellular phone SMS capabilities and scratch-off lottery-style labels. By doing so, it provides a user-friendly solution to consumers that requires minimal education and training to use.
To date, Sproxil has already sold more than 5M anti-counterfeit labels in Nigeria and has set up the first national mobile-based anti-counterfeit service in Africa, beginning in Nigeria with a partnership with the NAFDAC. Their customers include both local companies as well as global pharmaceutical companies such as GSK and Johnson & Johnson.

About Acumen Fund
Acumen Fund is a pioneering not-for-profit venture fund that is changing how the world addresses poverty. Acumen Fund invests patient capital in business models that deliver critical, affordable goods and services to the world’s poor, improving the lives of millions. Since its founding in 2001, Acumen Fund has invested more than $40 million in companies that provide access to water, health, energy, housing and agriculture inputs to low-income consumers in South Asia and East Africa. For more information on Acumen Fund’s activities and investments, visit http://www.acumenfund.org and http://www.acumenfundblog.org.

About Sproxil, Inc.
Sproxil, Inc., a privately backed organization, provides world-class brand protection for emerging markets through software and services that work anywhere there are mobile phones. Simple, easy to use and with no consumer capital investment, Sproxil offers a comprehensive anti-counterfeiting strategy for cash-based societies. Delivering automatic protection, simple labels and robust back-end analytics with its Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) solution, Sproxil enables consumers to text message an item-unique code for a rapid response that confirms a brand’s genuineness. Our solution also helps companies connect directly to their consumers through customized text message responses – such as disease management tips – and ads that specifically target those demographics with known buying behaviors. Learn more at http://www.sproxil.com.
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The recent three-day recent Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition showcased promise and opportunities for emerging companies across the technology, medical device, manufacturing, and life sciences fields to name a few. Several of these companies will likely go beyond just being profitable and will impact our lives in the future. With a keynote speech by Michigan Governor-elect, Rick Snyder the event fostered innovation and Sproxil is very pleased to have been selected as the People’s Choice. Thanks to the people of Michigan for hosting this wonderful competition.

Al Jazeera reports from Nairobi that fake drugs are big business in Kenya and interview a patient that was harmed by them. They state that there are 44 registered drug companies in Kenya and more than 11,000 illegal products are sold every day.

After a fantastic week in Ireland, we are glad to announce that we received one of the two honorable mentions at IBM’s Global SmartCamp finals. IBM’s corporate strategy to identify startups that are making the planet smarter is rather inspiring, shedding light on some problems largely unknown being solved with intelligent, instrumented and interconnected systems.
In a smarter planet:

• Loggers will only cut trees they need to fulfill an order. Instead of storing felled trees over large areas of land, they can store their logs as living trees, know exactly which trees will give them the optimal number of planks (of the right dimensions) and cut the trees just in time, not “just in case”. [TreeMetrics]
• We’ll all be able to get a parking space in no time and know that there’s a free parking spot 3 blocks away. If you are a city official, your parking enforcement staff will be able to give out parking tickets right as the meter expires, with pinpoint GPS accuracy, bringing in more revenue for the state. [Streetline]
• Medical record software will look as great as iPad applications and healthcare professions will have more timely information to make better diagnoses. Doctors can also benefit from social networks to share information securely and reduce the costs of healthcare. [CareCloud]
• Scientist will spend fewer frustrating hours locating the numerous images they have taken. CTRL+F may be put on life support. [VisioHost]
• We still need oil & gas to drive today’s economies. More accurate seismic measurements using a network of portable, smart sensors smaller than a shoebox will help minimize the economic impact of oil exploration and smoothen our transition to a green economy. [World Sensing]
• You’ll know if your tap water is any good even before a drop gets to your house. [Predect]
• Care to challenge your energy company when you get suspiciously large bills, similar to what you can do with credit card statements or cell phone bills? Matchbox-sized self-powered snap on sensors will measure every bolt of electricity you use, and will bring transparency to utility bills by itemizing electricity bills. [Panoramic Power]
• “Knock and listen” is a dinosaur-era way of finding out how much stuff is left in a tank. You’ll never have to use a stick to judge how much oil/feedstock/coolant you have left in a container – you’ll be able to optimize deliveries, minimizing waste. [LindCom]

And lastly, you’ll be smarter than a counterfeiter. [Sproxil]

Congratulations to Streetline (global winners) and all the regional winners for making this world smarter. Everyone benefits on a smarter planet.