Globalisation has led to greater demand and easier access to global brands worldwide. This is turn has resulted in a phenomenal increase in counterfeit products. Traditional Track and Trace technologies such as barcodes and rfid, are no longer sufficient by themselves to safeguard the consumer as they themselves can be copied or cloned by the counterfeiters. Authentication is not the same as Track and Trace, and awareness is growing amongst brand owners of the need to offer authentication as part of their safeguards program and corporate social responsibility as well as protecting their brand equity.
Mark McGlade. Board member IAA
International Authentication
Association (IAA)
Tel: +44 1932 785 680
www.internationalauthenticationassociation.org
Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG)
Tel: +44 1494 449165
www.a-cg.com
European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)
Tel: +32 2 626 25 55
www.efpia.org
International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
Tel: +1 202 223 6667
www.iacc.org
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
Tel: +1 202 835 3400
www.phrma.org
Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI)
Tel: +1 703 848 0160
www.psi-inc.org
Recent studies on dispensing and dosing errors, reimbursement issues, and cases of counterfeits in the legitimate supply chain have highlighted the need to establish more clearly and effectively the identity of each medicine pack and to trace its origin.
Various coding solutions have been implemented by Member States, each with their own objectives and motivation. The coexistence of these different systems constitutes an obstacle to enhanced tracking and tracing of medicines at an EU level and adds production costs for manufacturing.
This has led EFPIA to recommend the implementation of a standardized identification solution for pharmaceutical products across Europe.
The 'Pharmaceutical Package', is the popular name for a series of measures proposed by the European Commission impacting the pharmaceutical industry.
The 'Pharmaceutical Package' contains three important initiatives. All proposals aim to improve patient safety by: reducing infiltration of counterfeits, improving health information available to patients and modernizing pharmacovigalance.
The anti-counterfeiting measures include discussion on packaging features, tamper evidence and guidance on repackaging.