This is a really short post. Given how it’s often challenging to get good information on counterfeiting, we would like to help share recent information from the UK POST. Take a look at their report and listen to their 15 min podcast. You may even subscribe to their feed so that you get the latest information right away (includes much more than counterfeiting information).
Enjoy.
Category: Discussions
Chinese Consul-General reportedly blames Nigerian businessmen for fakes
allAfrica.com is reporting that the Chinese Consul-General in Lagos, Mr. Guo Kun, said Nigerian entrepreneurs are making Chinese companies produce sub-standard goods and that the Chinese companies do so because they want the business.
They say that during an official visit by a Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) delegation to strengthen bilateral relationships he said “It is a real problem for a product that is say 10 dollars (about N1500) of standard quality, some of the [Nigerian] entrepreneurs went to China, and asked the host to make it thinner and cheaper. At the very beginning, some of the [Chinese] companies were very reluctant to produce for them. But later, you know they are entrepreneurs, they want to make money. These host factories don’t want to make for them, to produce for them. Finally they [Nigerian entrepreneurs] went to many factories, at least they can find one or two factories to make for them sub-standard goods and they bring it back,” to Nigeria.
This raises the age old question of who is responsible for sub-standard products, is it the illegitimate manufacturer, the importer or both? You can read the original article here.
The Brazilian Serialization Initiative
Brazil, home of 191M people and the largest drug market in South America (estimated at $17B in 2008), has just implemented a three-year plan to track all of its medicinal prescription products, both human and veterinary, using a 2D datamatrix barcode. The goal is to put in place a thorough method through which all pharmaceutical products can be traced from producer to end-user using safety codes located on the packaging. These so-called Medicine Single Identifier labels will contain unique barcodes that link the medicine to its registration number, lot number, production date, etc. in an official database. Medicine manufacturing companies will be responsible for ensuring that all of their products contain these safety labels, which companies can buy either blank or with codes already printed on them. The national regulatory agency – ANVISA – will supply all pharmacies with scanners in order to verify the authenticity of products at or before the time of purchase.
Several of the issues raised by these new rules include questions about the regulation of international medicines: can pharma products produced outside the country use the codes provided by Brazilian national authorities? If so, and assuming that ANVISA will require all serialization codes to be applied within the country/upon product entry into the Brazilian drug market, it seems that international medicines will be significantly less secure despite their secure assurance label. We reckon consumers might also wonder about the system’s transparency – if pharmacists are now selling fakes and they will also be doing the checking using special scanners, consumers seem to be left out in the dark in this new process and it may not be as effective as a solution that puts the power of authentication in the hands of the consumer.
Questions have also been raised about whether the national database will be government- or commercially-maintained. Interestingly, Sproxil avoids uncertainty on all of these concerns:
- we sell scratch-off codes to pharmaceutical manufacturing companies whose products appear in Nigerian markets, regardless of their production location
- we put the power of authentication in the hands of the consumer
- we keep a private, encrypted information database in a redundant cloud
In any case, it would seem that even though Brazil is on its way to decreasing the 25% market share that counterfeits currently hold, the country has a bit further to go before its 1 January 2012 timetable deadline. Other countries, such as the USA, have tried to set deadlines on serialization projects to spur industry adoption, but that approach doesn’t seem to be effective. We hope to see much more industry collaboration with the authorities in Brazil to make the project successful.
WHO highlights INTERPOL’s work on confiscating fake products
As the WHO makes progress on the definition of counterfeit drugs and medical devices, we find it interesting that it is collaborating with INTERPOL to highlight the need for good enforcement to keep counterfeit products off the shelves. Last year, in a five-month operation in Asia, INTERPOL confiscated 20 million counterfeit and illegal pills! Between falsified paperwork, suspiciously-packaged products and unusual odors, simple checks and basic due diligence on imports can assist enforcement officers to identify fakes without the need of any technology.
In short, technology is an efficiency multiplier – organizations need to have basic anti-counterfeit intelligence processes in place to make the most of technology enhancements.
The recent bulletin also provides some interesting statistics:
In more than 50% of cases, medicines purchased over the Internet from illegal sites that conceal their physical address have been found to be counterfeit.
Also, sadly:
In Singapore, 150 people were admitted to hospital in the first five months of 2008 having severe hypoglycaemia – a sharp drop in blood-sugar levels. Four of them died and seven suffered severe brain damage. They had reportedly taken counterfeit copies of drugs purporting to treat erectile dysfunction but which contained a hefty dose of glyburide, used for treating diabetes.
Read more here.
Market research shows emerging market mobile advertising growing rapidly
JBB Research, a leading market analysis company in the mobile space, just released its newsletter on mobile advertising in international markets. As our MPATM technology provides brand owners and marketers with a dedicated conduit to send timely and relevant ads, we are keen on discovering advertisers’ interests in emerging markets.
The African market may have leapfrogged internet advertising and gone straight for mobile advertising. According to JBB:
The South African market is one of the most mature and advanced mobile advertising markets in Africa as the associated response rates for mobile ad campaigns (10% to 25%) are much higher than the associated rates (1-2%) for traditional online advertising campaigns.
As chief marketing officers craft strategies for cash-based societies, it pays to note that to get 10x better results on your electronic media campaigns, you should go mobile.
Also, digital advertising goes down, mobile advertising is up:
As Mike Wehrs, Former CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) pointed out to me, 2009 has been the best year ever for the mobile advertising industry, with 2 to 4 times more activities than the previous years. According to Mr Wehrs, there is also a shift in advertising spent from digital to mobile, with a 20% YoY decrease in digital advertising spending Vs a 20% YoY increase in mobile advertising spending. — JJB Research
We will let you know when we launch our ad serving platform for the international market. If you’re in Nigeria and you’re thinking about starting a mobile campaign, send us your thoughts. We can help.
Experts weigh in on Sproxil’s technology
Reuters recently asked experts in the mobile phone industry to weigh in on Sproxil’s technology. This follow-up piece on the original article gives readers some interesting feedback on our MPATM technology that powers NAFDAC’s Mobile Authentication Service (MAS).
The three experts, Derek Kerton (The Kerton Group), Cindy Krum (Rank Mobile) and Jacob Sharony (Mobius Consulting), provide technology consultancy services to some of the world’s largest companies, including Sony, Paypal, NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom and Northrop Grumman.
Comments from the experts include:
The best apps might not be 3D games on the iPhone, but rather simple SMS programs that make a real difference. — Derek Kerton, The Kerton Group
“I think this technology is great, and it sounds like it can be easily adapted to verify lots of products – both high-dollar and more mainstream.” — Cindy Krum, Rank Mobile
Cindy also notes the need for more consumer awareness on the risk of taking a fake drug:
“To see success the project will have to be embraced and evangelized off-line in mass media. People will only use this technology if they understand the risks and trust the results”
The experts had a few points that we would like to address. Here is the response we sent:
Thank you to the experts for their comments. We are excited that there is growing interest in our technology and services. I’d like to address some of the questions/concerns raised so that readers may be able to discuss our solutions in more detail.
We set out to design a service that 2 billion people in low-to-medium income countries could easily use. The service has to be as secure as first-world options, and not require a large marketing campaign to retrain 2 billion people. With this in mind, we went with SMS on the mobile phone.
We offer a service not an app – there is no download or install process required. Text messaging is already pre-installed as a GSM standard on the vast majority of GSM phones made in the last decade, including the older second-hand phones often seen in developing nations.
Relatively lower income levels in developing nations means that offering an app to download and install is not scalable – it requires a data plan, which comes with an extra charge to the user. Using barcodes (1D and 2D) could work for those users who have cameraphones with autofocus and mobile internet data plans to upload the scanned barcodes for authentication. Sadly, data plans are not common among the masses outside the developed world. These are some of the reasons that led us to design our solution around a toll-free text message number. Consumers don’t have to worry about costs any longer, and legitimate brand owners are willing to foot the bill.
In our technology design phase, we also looked at a “chip and pin” model, where two codes are entered and jointly authenticated. This could work in countries that have good electronic trade systems, such as South Africa and in some parts of India and China. However, in the cash-based societies where drug counterfeiting is a major problem, one rarely gets a receipt for purchases. Thus, there is no easy way to reliably generate a receipt with a PIN.
We focused on what is already working in these cash-based societies. The prepaid cell phone market has tripled in five years (2001 to 2006). This multi-million dollar market is growing at 80%-90% annually in Asia and Latin America – and that was in 2006, I believe it’s even more exciting now. I contend that the popularity of prepaid phones hinges on the successful prepaid airtime voucher model where consumers buy a voucher with cash (often by the street or in traffic), scratch off a panel, send a code and get airtime to make a phone call. This method has been wildly successful in cash-based societies, and we’re leveraging the success to help solve a grave problem – counterfeit medication – in these same societies. Consumers already know how to scratch and send codes, and hackers have been largely unsuccessful at making fake prepaid voucher cards. The GSM technology we leverage is a great example of “good enough” security – not overly complicated, yet secure enough to power 4 billion phones worldwide.
Awareness on counterfeits is growing. There are now some good online resources for advocacy – the Partnership for Safe Medicines comes to mind. As local enforcement efforts are increased over time, we’ve seen consumers get savvier. We invite foundations and social media houses to help raise awareness on drug quality issues, so that folks at the so-called bottom of the pyramid don’t get fake drugs in exchange for their hard-earned cash.
Prepaid stats available here
NEXT: Anti-Counterfeit Collaboration Turns to Government
The counterfeit issue has become so widespread in the Nigerian marketplace that non-governmental organizations and major brands alike have turned to the government for help. The Anti-Counterfeit Collaboration (ACC) was formed in 2006 and aims to mobilize brand owners, enforcement agencies, and other interested parties (Sproxil being one), in a joint effort to combat counterfeiting.
Interestingly, many non-pharma companies – such as Nokia and KFC – have been leaders in this effort, as they increasingly feel the loss in market share as well. The CEO of KFC Nigeria, who is also the chairman of the ACC, affirms the presence of fake products in the fast food industry, too. In fact, a recent consumer survey shows that somewhere between 60-80 percent of goods sold in the Nigerian market – including pharmaceuticals, luxury goods, software and computer hardware, audio and visual products, motor vehicle parts, and food and beverages – are counterfeit.
Fake products have grown so rampant that they discourage foreign investment, lead to consumer doubt and negative health effects, and lessen the financial stability and brand legitimacy of authentic manufacturers. The ACC maintains that the government needs to put policies in place for better surveillance. For more information, read this article.
consumer
Strategies against Counterfeit Medicines
The University of Würzburg is organizing a conference on Strategies against Counterfeit Medicines. Take a look at the program – it will be a great place to learn about counterfeiting in the western world.
Photos: Real vs. Fake
You don’t find photos of real versus fake products on a regulator’s website everyday.
If you take a look, you’ll realize that it’s challenging to determine which sample is genuine or fake if you only had one of the drugs in hand. Try it – cover either the genuine or fake sample on the screen and ask yourself: “does this look like a regular drug?”
Consumer-focused anti-counterfeit security features should give a clear yes/no answer, else it’s back to guess work.
Studies show alarming prevalence of sub-standard medication in Africa
Only months after the The US Pharmacopoea (USP) assisted in the discovery of fake antimalarials in Ghana, a West-African nation, major studies are now beginning to reveal the true depth of the drug quality problem. Recent studies have shown that almost half of the antimalarials in Senegal are substandard. The drugs tested in Senegal failed standard pharmacovigilance tests that determine the quantity and quality of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and physical drug properties, such as dissolution. Failing an API test means that the patient could be taking a placebo, or even worse, a drug tainted with toxins.
The consumer in Senegal isn’t a lone victim. The situation isn’t much better in other African nations: 26% of antimalarials in Uganda are substandard. In Madagascar, it’s slightly higher at 30%. Uganda only recently switched from monotherapy antimalaria drugs to the combination therapy antimalarials. The counterfeiters switched too.
It is key that consumers have appropriate purchase decision support at the point of healthcare: all the drugs tested in Senegal had a fraction of the recommended API, but impotent antimalarials risk boosting the malaria parasite’s resistance to the real drugs. If consumers have the right tools to steer them away from sub-standard medication, such drugs will pose less of a risk to human life. The malaria parasite’s resistance isn’t boosted when fake and sub-standard drugs are left on the shelf.
We commend the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for supporting the Drug Quality and Information (DQI) program and the USP for implementing the Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) initiative. Such efforts will help bring more evidence to the fore as we get better data to quantify the real extent of the fake drug menace.
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