In a large enforcement operation in one of Africa’s most populous cities, the Nigerian Government has shut down numerous illegal pharmacies. Nigeria continues to be a shining example in the fight against counterfeiting and we wish good health to all Lagosians.

In what Yahoo describes as a $600 billion industry, here is a list of top 5 potentially harmful classes of counterfeit goods.

Last quarter ended with great progress on expanding our efforts across Africa while receiving praise for the milestones Sproxil and its collaborators have already achieved.
The momentum has rolled into this quarter, with some recent media mentions:

• The ZDNet UK syndication of a Sproxil guest blog post at the UN Dispatch.
• A mention as an alternative technology solution on FiercePharma Manufacturing‘s article on RFID that highlights some challenges faced in using electronic chips for validating drugs in developing nations.
• FierceMobile Healthcare titled “U.S. lags behind in mobile health adoption” is worth a read:
  

  Saxon notes that Interpol and authorities in Zanzibar, Tanzania, last month seized hundreds of boxes of counterfeit drugs. “Using fake drugs has tragic consequences–there is decreased immunity and people lose faith in life-saving medicine,” Saxon says. “Technologists came up with a solution: individuals can verify the authenticity of medicine by sending a text message with an ID number printed on the box of legitimate medicine, then the drug company text back verifying that the medicine is OK to use.”

  Again, behold the power of the text message.

• SOCAP 10 Headline News, highlighting Sproxil’s recent Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
• The mHealth Alliance’s mPulse update.

These are certainly exciting times for Sproxil and we thank consumers for their continued texting! Stay safe – avoid fakes.

Sproxil, Inc. is a privately backed company that provides comprehensive anti-counterfeiting strategies for cash-based societies, including solutions for drug and product verification. Sproxil’s business model has caused it to make major business and social inroads in Africa in a short time.

“The increasing popularity of enhancing global health activities with private sector entrepreneurship signifies a shift in thinking among experts and practitioners,” said Sproxil CEO Dr. Ashifi Gogo. “By wrapping our business model around providing purchase decision support to those with little, we believe they will save money and increase their well-being, bringing new, locally-driven momentum to achieving the MDGs.”

Read more here: http://www.afribiz.info/?p=9098

We have had a tremendous month at Sproxil. We’ve hit some major authentication volume milestones and just this week made two major announcements. Like Pfizer, Vodafone and WaterHealth, we made a commitment to improve the state of healthcare in several communities – in our case, by empowering consumers with tools to avoid getting ripped off.

http://www.maxilamba.com/player.swf

Dr. Ashifi Gogo, CEO of Sproxil, announced Sproxil’s pledge to mobilize US $4 million over the next two years to expand efforts to empower patients and consumers with mobile phones in the fight against counterfeit medication in India and Kenya. It is estimated that over 700,000 people die yearly due to imitation malaria and TB medication alone. By using mobile phones, consumers and patients purchasing medication can text in simple numeric codes placed on the drugs to verify if a medicine is genuine. The text messaging service provides a simple “Yes, genuine” or “No, fake” based on this code. Working with the Nigerian FDA, Sproxil’s codes have already been used on over 1.4 million blister packs in Nigeria, with thousands of users signing up every month.

“The increasing popularity of enhancing Global Health activities with private sector entrepreneurship signifies a shift in thinking among experts and practitioners. Global Health projects reach those with little, and entrepreneurship creates wealth. By wrapping our business model around providing purchase decision support to those with little, we believe they will save money and increase their well-being, bringing new, locally-driven momentum to achieving the MDGs.”

Our work has got even more coverage:

• “Pfizer, Sproxil aid in safe drug access programs” – FiercePharma Manufacturing
• UNDP Business Call to Action

Information passed on to us from the Anti-Counterfeit Medical Products Task Force shows a growing concern around counterfeiting.

As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, getting an exact metric on how challenging counterfeiting truly is can be quite a challenge in itself – it’s a dynamic illegal trade. However, there is something to which we can all agree: it’s a big problem that poses a significant risk to the trust patients have vested in health care systems across the world.

Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather makes a trip to Nigeria after investigating the mysterious case of Kevin Xu, a convicted counterfeiter who had a wide array of prescription drugs ready for sale. The new footage shows the global nature of the counterfeit trade, where counterfeiters can take actions that directly affect others they have never met thousands of miles away.

Rather explores the back alleys of a Nigerian marketplace with Dr. Paul Orhii, the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, or NAFDAC, where often times the small pharmacists are unknowingly pushing bad medicine.

See the press release here, and a short video on YouTube, where a pharmacy selling a fake drug is caught on camera. Don’t forget to watch the show on HDNet this Tuesday, September 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET. There will be an encore at 11:00 p.m. ET the same day, and a downloadable video file in iTunes.

We are glad to announce that Egbe Osifo-Dawodu has joined our team of advisors at Sproxil.
Egbe is a partner at Anadach Group which focuses on bringing innovative solutions to health care dilemmas in emerging markets. She recently joined Anadach from the new innovation practice at the World Bank Institute where she led the pilot innovation fair on fragility and conflict in South Africa. Egbe won one of the first innovation awards in the World Bank Group (the precursor to the development marketplace).

Prior to joining the innovation practice, she helped start the African University of Science and Technology in Abuja, Nigeria, managed the Human Development Group at the World Bank Institute, and worked on health policy at the World Bank and on private health sector projects at the International Finance Corporation. She has over 20 years experience in health care, covering policy, provision and health care financing in Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America. She has also taught at universities in the Washington DC area. Egbe is a medical doctor with a degree from the University of Ibadan and a member of the UK Royal College of Physicians. She holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and an MSc from Oxford University. She has also attended courses on the business of entertainment at the University of Southern California and University of California Los Angeles and co-founded the Nollywood Foundation based in California.

See more on our accomplished multi-national team here: http://sproxil.com/team.php

We are glad to announce that Sproxil will be participating in this year’s Mobile Health Expo in Las Vegas. Our CFO and Strategist, Mr. Zecha, will give a talk titled “Using Mobile Authentication Services to Improve Health in Developing Worlds” at the conference on Oct 20th. To learn more about the conference, visit http://mobilehealthexpo.com.

Are you wondering whether the drugs you have just picked up from your local pharmacy will kill you, save your life, or make your disease drug resistant? Counterfeiting is a common problem and is a cause for serious concern. What if you could read a code on a panel on a drug package, send a simple text message containing that package’s unique code, and get back a message that the drugs were authentic and safe or fake to use? Does it sound like a vision of the future? Well it isn’t. It’s already here today. After successfully completing an initial test from February to May, Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication ^TM (MPA) is now in full release in Nigeria and has already received interest from a number of other countries.
MPA is an anti-counterfeiting system that allows you to test your drugs when you buy them. MPA uses simple methods to conquer a difficult problem. You do not need to buy or own any specialized device or equipment to check a drug. The solution provides automatic protection against counterfeiters. It is a quick, easy and effective way to discover whether drugs are real or fake. It is a very reliable service and doesn’t need any maintenance, calibration or regular testing like devices.

One of the greatest benefits of Sproxil’s anti-counterfeiting system is that it can be used by consumers without any technical hassles. The end user can make use of this opportunity to safeguard himself from the potential dangerous effects of fake drugs. Sproxil’s solution benefits governments, drug regulators and law enforcers, industry and professionals, foreign donors, foundations, and especially consumers. Everyone wins, except for the counterfeiters that is.