Sproxil CFO and Strategist Alden Zecha attended the Partnership for Safe Medicines Interchange 2011 on Thursday, October 27th in Washington D.C. Sproxil was thrilled to be a bronze sponsor of such an exciting and informational event!
Below is the PSM Board posing behind a background of the Interchange’s sponsor logos.

You can see the Sproxil logo in the background!

 

Many thanks to the wonderful folks at PSM for allowing Sproxil the opportunity to be a bronze sponsor! For more information about the Partnership for Safe Medicines, go to the PSM website and follow them on Twitter at @SafeMedicines.

A Smarter Planet’s Richard Silberman put together this great article about our CEO, Ashifi Gogo.
Click the link to read more:
Meet Ashifi Gogo on A Smarter Planet

Take a moment to watch this great video put together by IBM on Sproxil.

Counterfeiting is a global issue that needs global attention.

In many developing areas, medications used for treating non-communicable diseases can be very expensive. Those who cannot afford such medications tend to seek out cheaper alternatives, and run into the risk of consuming a potential harmful, sub-standard medication. Counterfeiters leverage this window of opportunity for selfish and petty gains, and unfortunately, the effects can be devastating to its victims.

A recent article published by The Nation (a Kenyan journal), reiterated the alarming prevalence of counterfeit medicines in a statistic stating that almost one third of the drugs in the Kenya market are fake. According to a survey taken by the Kenyan National Quality Control Laboratories and Kenyan Pharmacy and Poison Board, “about 30 per cent of drugs in the Kenyan market were fake. [That is a] black market value of Sh13 billion” (about USD 30 million).

As alarming as the prevalence of counterfeit medicines is the lack of strict legal measures established and enforced in these countries to fight back. Although countries such as Nigeria are actively working to eliminate counterfeits in their markets (NAFDAC is an amazing and strong organizational force that actively pursues counterfeiters), the rise in fake medicines continues to call for even greater enforcement and proactive investigations.

It is not only the governing bodies and law enforcers that should work toward creating a market free of counterfeits; those in healthcare (doctors, nurses, healthcare administrators, pharmacists) and the pharmaceutical industry (manufacturers, suppliers, distributors) must work together in a concerted effort. Eliminating fakes and bringing counterfeiters to justice is not the sole responsibility of one person, one body, or one country; it is a global issue that needs global attention.

Consumers can also aid in the war against counterfeit drugs; no longer should consumers sit back passively and wait for change. Instead, individuals must be aware and vigilant at all times. As online pharmacies around the world gain greater popularity due to their convenience and promises of cheaper and always-available medications, falling into the trap of a fake pharmacy has very negative and potentially dangerous effects. As Dr. Charles David MD (Alliance for Patient Access) once said, “if seems ‘too good to be true,’ it probably is.”

However, it would be inaccurate to state that only the end-users of these medications are the ones who fall for these fake pharmacies. Even doctors and nurses have fallen for fake pharmacies and pharmaceutical medicine retailers. When shortages of medications threaten the welfare of patients, healthcare workers will desperately seek for alternatives from other, less accredited sources. Alternatively, when prices of medications exceed budgets, people will jump at the cheaper alternatives. Counterfeiters always seek opportunity and will take advantage of the needs of anyone, whether it is an end-user, doctor, pharmacist, or drug manufacturer.

“This is a dangerous trade,” warns Dr Hezekiah Chepkwony (Quality Control Director, National Quality Control Lab).

Indeed, it is, but we can fight back.

On October 27th in Washington DC, Sproxil will be attending and sponsoring the Partnership for Safe Medicines 2011 Interchange, the premier policy conference about counterfeit drugs.
We are excited to be a part of all efforts to help thwart the counterfeit drug problem!

To get a sense of what the conference is about, check out this video [link to http://www.safemedicines.org/counterfeit-drug-conference-2011.html]  of highlights from last year’s conference.

Additionally, if you would like to attend, you can get a 10% discount if you register through this link:  http://interchange2011.eventbrite.com/?discount=SPROXIL

Sproxil – we just don’t help save lives through our remarkable anti-counterfeiting solution, but we also save you money when you register for PSM 2011 Interchange!

Sproxil’s anti-counterfeiting solution, endorsed by Nigeria’s NAFDAC (the Nigerian equivalent of the US FDA), has now extended its life-saving services to Kenya. Just this year, Sproxil won the support of the Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) as a supplier of brand protection services in Kenya.
Teaming up with the award-winning telecommunication network Safaricom, Sproxil is excited to introduce a live short code in Kenya. The short code, 38353, is the same as the one used by Sproxil’s clients in Nigeria.

“Because the short code is the same across both countries, Sproxil’s cloud-based technology can easily detect illegally diverted products across the two countries. We are also excited to offer our clients a heavily-encrypted connection between Sproxil and Safaricom for additional security,” remarks Mr. Rick Tucker, Software Architect at Sproxil’s USA office.

Sproxil continues to bring world-class brand protection into emerging markets like Kenya and Nigeria. In these markets, consumers can send an SMS containing a unique, twelve-digit PIN to 38353 and instantly receive a response that confirms the authenticity of the product. This method is impressively simple, championed by robust back-end analytics, and provides a way for companies to gain insight into their market and connect with consumers in a way that was never seen before in cash-based societies.

Recently, Sproxil partnered with Nigeria-based pharmaceutical distributor Greenlife Pharmaceuticals and India-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Bliss GVS Pharma to provide their anti-counterfeiting solution in Nigeria for the popular anti-malarial drug, LONART DS. This was the first cross-country collaboration for SMS authentication with a successful product launch. Now, with a short code in Kenya, the vigilant Kenyan consumer has a way to avoid buying fake products, both pharma and non-pharma.

Sproxil will be expanding its services to East Africa out of its Kenyan hub.

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.