Sydney-based Bizcaps Software has partnered with Australia’s Authenticateit to use its expertise in healthcare supply chain technology with Authenticateit’s mobile app protection platform in the global fight against counterfeit medicines.
The Authenticateit protection platform, designed to identify counterfeits using a smartphone, lets buyers, clinicians and patients easily check each product's authenticity to confirm it is genuine — and safe — before they complete their purchase or use the medication.
The collaboration between Bizcaps and Authenticateit comes in the wake of the Indonesian government’s announcement in June this year that it had discovered it had been vaccinating children for more than a decade with fake vaccines. It also coincided with an announcement by the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) that police had uncovered a criminal syndicate involved in selling the fake vaccines.
Subsequently, three global companies — Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline and Biofarma — are now working with BPOM to verify five types of fake vaccines confiscated from nearly 30 clinics in seven locations.
{loadposition peter}It is estimated that nearly one million children were affected by the fake vaccines.
According to Authenticateit chief executive Gennady Volchek, counterfeit medicines and healthcare products are a dangerous problem for the global healthcare community.
“With changes to the regulatory environment and as traceability and serialisation become mandatory for the healthcare sector around the world, Authenticateit offers a powerful protection platform, designed to track and trace products at every point in the supply chain and deter counterfeits and parallel importing. Its innovative technology will detect any anomalies in the supply chain and allow immediate action to bar, disable or neutralise unauthorised imports or counterfeit operations at the source.”
With the Authenticateit platform, as any product moves through the supply chain, from raw material to manufacturer and from distributor to retailer, its serial number is stored in a cloud-based database and can be tracked and traced.
Bizcap Software chief executive Rob Clifton-Steele, says with the company’s “strong track record delivering projects to companies such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Alphapharm, Sanofi, Cook Medical and Stryker", Bizcaps will share this experience with those on the frontline, “today tackling the surge in counterfeit health and pharmaceutical products”.
“It was important to us that Authenticateit complied with the GS1 Electronic Product Code EPCglobal standard. Authenticateit supports a range of GS1 barcodes and these standards provide a Unique Product Identifier that delivers certainty to the supply chain — and clinicians and patients — that the product is, in fact, the real deal.
“In healthcare, counterfeiting can have deadly consequences and it is imperative that healthcare manufacturers protect themselves – and their customers. AuthenticateIT stops this trade of counterfeit goods and delivers everyone in the supply chain peace of mind.”
The free Authenticateit mobile app is available through the Apple App store and Google Play.