Lately, there have been cases of spurious drugs made elsewhere in the world being exported to African countries as drugs ‘made in India’. By the time the authenticity of a drug is established, the damage would have been done. India, known to be a major generics exporter, would have its name tarnished.
Sproxil, has come with a solution focusing on checking the drug counterfeit market through its brand protection product Mobile Product Authentication (MPA). It enables consumers to verify the authenticity of a pharmaceutical product by sending the unique code on the drug as a free text message to the manufacturers, in real time.
The solution, introduced by Sproxil, provides patients with an SMS verification service. The service is in use in Nigeria where all Ampiclox 500mg capsule blisters made by GlaxoSmithKline would henceforth be labeled with a special label that carries a 12-digit PIN used by the patients at the point of purchase to verify that the product is genuine.
“India has one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world but is plagued by counterfeit medicines made elsewhere that tarnish brand India. Our services enable Indian companies to reduce the presence of counterfeit medicines by connecting companies directly to their consumers in a scalable manner, using mobile phones. Our Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) architecture combines secure interlocking technologies and makes counterfeiting unprofitable,” said Ashifi Gogo, CEO, Sproxil Inc.
The company considers India an integral part of it’s global strategy, and it has launched in two cities — Bangalore and Mumbai — as more than 80 per cent of the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers are based in the West and the South of India.
It is now in discussions with IBM for major technology.
It has signed up a drug company in Bangalore and another in Mumbai as its clients. It had received two grants — $100,000 from USAID, and another $100,000 from Clinton Foundation and some other funding agencies. It has now raised $1.8 million from Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund, to expand its business in India and Africa.