Anticounterfeiting Solution From Kodak
Pharmaceutical companies have a powerful new antidote to combat the rising impact of counterfeit drugs: the Kodak Traceless System for Anticounterfeiting. Using this covert technology, drug companies can now assure physicians and their patients that they are receiving authentic products.
With the Kodak Traceless System, pharmaceutical companies can quickly and easily distinguish genuine medications from dangerous fakes. The Traceless System uses forensically undetectable markers that can be placed into printed materials or product packaging. The markers can only be detected using secure, handheld KODAK readers. In addition to its pharmaceutical clients, Kodak has also successfully implemented its anticounterfeiting solutions for customers in consumer electronics, cosmetics, beverage, apparel and other markets.
Med-Health Pharma LLC, a prescription drug repackager, recently announced its use of the Traceless System to protect its product packages from counterfeiting and fraud. Offering the most widely prescribed drugs in packages of 10-30 doses, Med-Health Pharma delivers medications for point of care dispensing, a system that fills patients’ prescriptions at the physician’s office rather than at a traditional pharmacy.
“The KODAK TRACELESS System provides a staunch defense against counterfeiters who try to replicate packaging and peddle dangerous fakes,” said Sam Haddad, vice president of operations, Med-Health Pharma. “Authentication is very important for our industry and this solution allows us to aggressively confront the issue of counterfeit products that risk innocent lives.”
The proliferation of fake drugs across the world market and the Internet is a critical problem that affects companies, governments and customers. MarkMonitor, an industry fraud advisor, found that of the 3,160 online pharmacies found to be selling popular prescription drugs, only four of them had a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site accreditation from The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
“Counterfeit prescription drugs quickly spread across the world markets, creating a substantial problem for government regulators, pharmaceutical brands and patients,” said Steve Powell, GM and Director, Security Solutions, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. “The Traceless System helps put counterfeiters out of business by making it virtually impossible to replicate the products we protect.”
The Traceless System is ideal for the protection of a wide range of products and packaging materials because Traceless markers can be mixed with various inks, toners, varnishes, and other items for analog and digital printing, as well as paper pulp, plastics, powders, pigments, liquids and textiles. Kodak’s covert authentication technology can also be a powerful component of an ePedigree system. For example, the Traceless markers can be added to a bar code printed via common printing methods, such as thermal transfer, to combine the traceability of the bar code with highly secure covert authentication — at a much lower cost than other technologies such as RFID.
Think Before You Fax or Scan
A local Saudi bank sent out a blank form last week asking customers to update personal information. Customers were supposed to fill in such details as date of birth, account number, ID/iqama number, address, telephone, employer, signature and more. After completion, the form was either to be faxed or mailed back to the bank and individuals who did so would be entered in a raffle to win one of 10 iPod Nanos.
This was a huge breach of customer safety and security. Saudi banks frequently advise that they will never ask customers to provide such information through an insecure channel – but what could be less secure than the post or a fax machine? This is an identity fraud disaster just waiting to happen.
The bank’s account update form contains a lot of valuable and private information. To fax this form, many people would first fill it out and then scan it into their PC before faxing it with a facsimile software application. If that computer lacked security or was an office machine the information could be immediately compromised. Many scanners, facsimile machines and all-in-one printers have memory. This means that any document handled through one of those machines can be reproduced by anyone having access to the machine. For your own safety, if you’ve received one of these forms, pass up the opportunity to win a free Nano and instead call the banks’ customer service to complain about their lack of intelligence in handling customer data.
