Google Exec Invests in Counterfeit Drug Fighting Technology
Eric Schmidt, Ex-Google CEO, has invested $3.9million to PharmaSecure, a mobile application used to verify medication authenticity using text messaging reported Haute Living.
Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, has invested $3.9 million in PharmaSecure, a mobile application used to verify medication authenticity using text messaging, reported Haute Living.
PharmaSecure’s anti-counterfeiting product uses SMS messaging to provide consumers with a method for verifying the authenticity of medication by typing a code on a medicine package into their phones and receiving an automated verification in response. They are researching new applications to meet India’s deadline of July 2012 by which all exported drugs are required to bear unique barcodes and serial numbers.
An award winning competitor in the SMS authentification market, Sproxil, also has operations in Nigeria, Kenya and India. Sproxil’s service works by placing a scratch-off label on products and then when consumers purchase a product, they scratch off the label to reveal a unique, random code. The code is then sent via SMS and the consumer receives a reply indicating whether the product is genuine or not.
In addition, SMS for Life, a program of Roll Back Malaria, allows health supply managers to determine where medicine shortages are via text message in order to quickly restock and support rural medical outposts.
In August, Google paid a $500 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice for allowing illegal online pharmacies to advertise to U.S. consumers through its Adwords program. Illegal online pharmacies are notorious purveyors of counterfeit medications, according to a report issued by The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in May, 2011.
Wrote the NABP, “One of the unfortunate consequences of our globalized marketplace, however, is the likelihood that those counterfeit and substandard drugs will make their way into medicine cabinets worldwide, as online sellers seek bargain prices from questionable distributors, and consumers neglect to question whether the substance they are buying is real medicine.”