Facing the menace to your brand

Estimated lost revenue to a typical $3 billion pharmaceutical blockbuster brand through counterfeiting and illegal diversion.

Pharmaceutical brands are increasingly threatened by counterfeiting and illegal channel diversion. As the proportion of pharmaceutical sales going through internet outlets continues to grow, the counterfeiter’s activities get even easier. The Center for Medicines in the Public Interest estimates that $35 billion in pharmaceutical revenue (6% of total worldwide sales) is lost annually to counterfeit and diverted products. A conservative estimate of counterfeiting and illegal diversion alone is $180 million for a $3 billion blockbuster drug.

Even more damaging than lost sales is the liability exposure created when a blockbuster brand is illegally copied or diverted and the manufacturer cannot or does not protect and authenticate it. The most serious threat of all is the destruction of market share and company reputation inflicted by counterfeit and diverted products.

Deeply covert protection
Nanoencryption™ technology is a layered pharmaceutical brand protection solution based on proprietary nanolithographic encryption technology. Overt technologies alone cannot protect a brand. If counterfeiters can see a label, they will defeat it. Nanoencryption technology incorporates semi-overt, covert, and nanoscale forensic features at the unit dose level, which can also be linked to the package level for a multilayered protective shield.

Unfortunately, an authentic package does not certify authentic content. Counterfeiters and diverters routinely switch units and repackage them. Additionally, legitimate US drug distributors repackage products, which necessitates a unit-level solution. Technologies such as RFID, colour shifting dyes and marking schemes work overtly or at the package level, but Nanoencryption is the only technology that provides deeply covert traceability at the unit level.

Fully traceable security
Nanoencryption technology’s nanoscale cryptography can only be detected with highly specialised authentication tools located at centralised NanoInk centres. This stringent, molecular-scale lock-and-key model ensures complete brand security through all points in the supply chain.

Nanoencryption technology on each tablet is directly linked to granular batch-specific data, and the pharmaceutical company is in strict control of which Nanoencryption data points are coupled
to each batch.

Minimal manufacturing changes
Brand integrity needs to be protected while continuing to run efficient and cost-effective production processes. That is why Nanoencryption was designed around a trusted manufacturing technology familiar to every pharmaceutical company. Nanoencryption technology is new, but the underlying platform is time-tested, so it is easily inserted into the existing manufacturing environment. And with a strong intellectual property position that makes reverse engineering difficult and costly, Nanoencryption technology is a long-term solution.

Protecting the supply chain
The investment is small considering the substantial savings in recovered profit, as well as the liability protection Nanoencryption technology offers. Because the manufacturing technology platform is already interwoven into most pharmaceutical operations, initial capital outlay is minimal.

Nanoencryption technology does not chemically modify the dosage form, so regulatory barriers are low and regulatory costs are nominal. In fact, the unsurpassed security provided by Nanoencryption means that the costs per tablet are minimal. By recapturing a meaningful portion of the revenue lost to counterfeit and diverted product, while lowering corporate liability and
exposure, Nanoencryption technology can easily pay for itself in less than a year.

Unfortunately, many opportunities exist for legitimate pharmaceutical supply chains to be compromised. Truly covert unit-level traceability has, until now, been virtually unattainable. Current forensic studies are time-consuming and expensive, so supply chain auditing rarely occurs. The pharmaceutical industry and regulatory authorities need easy and affordable forensic-level auditing capabilities.

Nanoencryption technology is the one-stop, deeply covert encryption and authentication solution. With Nanoencryption technology pharmaceutical manufacturers and enforcement agencies will be able to monitor the supply chain, identifying and significantly reducing counterfeiters, illegal diverters, and repackagers.

Company profile
NanoInk Inc is an emerging growth technology company specialising in nanometer-scale manufacturing and application development for the life science semiconductor and brand protection industries.

For more information, visit www.nanoink.net.

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