Service helps Africans spot fake drugs
Alex from Worldchanging sez, "You mentioned the problem of fake drugs being passed off in Nigeria. The problem is widespread. By coincidence, we recently published a story about mPedigree, an innovative new system which helps poor people verify the legitimacy of the drugs they're buying with tools they have at hand, namely, a cell phone and text messaging. It's pretty damn cool:"
The program combines mobile phones, scratch-off drug labels and text messaging into a simple, effective way for consumers in places like Accra to find out if the medicines they purchase are the real deal or counterfeit.mPedigree: Putting Safety into Consumers' Hands (Thanks, Alex!)Here's how their method works: mPedigree provides pharmaceutical manufacturers with specially coded labels, which are affixed to individually packaged medicines. At the drugstore counter, the purchaser scratches off a label to reveal a unique code, which he or she texts to a four-digit number. An automated service looks up the code in a database. On the spot, the consumer gets a reply message indicating whether the drug is genuine or fake.
The idea puts drug authentication into the hands of consumers, "who are the ones with the most to lose," Gogo points out. By empowering end users, he aims to ultimately create safer pharmaceutical distribution networks throughout the developing world."
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Bottom-up approaches rule.
So if I'm a drug counterfeiter, what's to stop me getting my hands on a small sample of legitimate coded labels, then just printing those same numbers on my fakes?
Yes!
@#1: I agree that this is a clever mechanism, and likely will fill an important need; but how exactly is it "bottom-up"?
mPedigree maintains a database, and prints unique code labels(luckily, nobody would ever skim the labels off a cheap drug and affix them to fakes of something much more expensive, that would be wrong and impossible) and the manufacturer applies them. The end user can query the database by phone.
It is an efficient, quick top-down solution; but it is totally top-down.
Wouldn't it be more cost effective to simply teach people what oregano smells like?
Oh, wait, what?
huh, two counterfeit drug stories on boingboing in 24 hours. It's like you know what I do for a living!
One of the nonprofits I work for writes up and archives just a few of the incidents that are really noteworthy at:
http://www.safemedicines.org/counterfeit-drug-incident-encyclopedia.html
The problem is very widespread in the whole world though. We're very protected from it in the US, but elsewhere, people die, regularly, from counterfeits either because they don't do the job they need to do, or because they're actually made with harmful ingredients.
Sounds cool. But, here where I'm living in Uganda I've never seen or heard of the thing before.
Sounds like a great system but I'd like for them to penetrate the thing and get it known. Without knowledge of the system no one even knows that the possiblity exists over here to be buying fake drugs.
That last counterfit drug article had me forwarding it on to a hundred others in two seconds. This one sounds great but if its not implemented how do we get it into the country and running? And soon?
Given the number of cell phones and scratchy codes for airtime out here this system is pretty much instinctual in its ease of use. I love the idea.
"@#1: I agree that this is a clever mechanism, and likely will fill an important need; but how exactly is it "bottom-up"? "
You need people in the field sending the codes, and you will need feedback from them once you discover the fake boxes. It is impractical to have an army of surveyors, specially in developing countries. Without distributed sampling this system cannot work for long.
#8 - I think the system has the end user in mind more than the distributors. All that has to work is the text - if it says ok, pay for the drug and be on your way. If it says its a fake, don't pay and get a new sample or go to a different store.
This all assumes that the whole thing is so widely used that companies are affixing fake labels though.... doesn't it? SOL otherwise. Maybe Im misunderstanding the concept.
"his all assumes that the whole thing is so widely used that companies are affixing fake labels though.... doesn't it? SOL otherwise. Maybe Im misunderstanding the concept."
I am not sure I understand you. I am not a native English Speaker. And yes, I am assuming that the system relies more on end users than on distributors.
just adapt current measures used to defend currency.
Also implement life sentences for drug counterfeiters.
Am I to understand that these fake drugs are not cheaper 'generic' or reverse-engineered equivalents or synthetics, but unrelated random ingredients?
I would be concerned if this database contained only patented versions of medicines, and not also their generic or synthetic equivalent. In that case, it would seem to be a propaganda tool from Big Pharma.
Unless there was a political motive by China to defame India, if and when the drug counterfeiters are caught in China, they'll be swiftly executed, just as the producers of products tainted with melamine and diethylene glycol were.
In China, corporatism is Serious Business.
in that case, I have no objection.
"Am I to understand that these fake drugs are not cheaper 'generic' or reverse-engineered equivalents or synthetics, but unrelated random ingredients?"
No, these are FAKE drugs that KILL people and create resistance of the pathogen, as sometimes they have a lower concentration of the active substance. Indian companies are not part of Big Pharma, as I understand the term.
#2
I suppose that counterfeiters could do that, however if mPedigree is smart, their system will recognize when the exact same code is being verified by different people. The system could then remove that code from the certified database.
there's a you tube video showing how mpedigree works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfX9nhVEfnY
#2: If the system were to have any merit then the codes would be unique, one-time codes. Using a code a second time would not work.
Which leads to a the problem suggested by #4: a scammer buying a cheap legit medicine, and using the code from that to sell an expensive fake. Well, for a start the scammers costs have already gone up considerably, possibly making it not worthwhile. But if not, you could imagine the system match codes and medicine names, so the reply SMS contains the name of the drug that you supposedly bought.
It will probably push the scammers higher up the ladder, though. Even to the point where they set up their own fake SMS-drug-authentication infrastructure.
Ashifi Gogo here. Thanks for the comments - it's great to see new thoughts on the mobile phone anti-counterfeit method. Please keep in mind the fact that a similar scratch-off system has been in use by the phone companies for the last 10 years to sell top-up airtime on mobile phones for the numerous pay-as-you-go clients in developing nations. It's been working flawlessly for this billion dollar industry. I'm applying a similar concept, but for drugs.
My biggest concern right now is how to get *all* consumers to check their drugs with the scratch-off labels, instead of just going "oh, it has a scratch-off thingy, it must be genuine". If they don't actually scratch and text the code, counterfeiters will just put blank scratch-offs and consumers won't know they've been duped.
If you have any more questions or ideas, kindly email me at ashifi@sproxil.com or DM me @ashifi on twitter.
'My biggest concern right now is how to get *all* consumers to check their drugs with the scratch-off labels'
And where exactly are you having this 'challenge'? I thought mPedigree had completed the pilot and was now advocating for implementation? You sound as if the service is actually available. Please let us have some clarity.
Van Der Meeren