Protect the public, protect the profits

Fraudulent copying is an increasing problem within the pharmaceutical industry. Companies are turning to bespoke holographic products that provide effective and lasting protection against counterfeiting.

Since the early 1980s, the use of holograms as an authentication device has grown. This began within the financial sector, where the Visa card ‘dove’ image has become synonymous with security and brand confidence, and rapidly developed to encompass document protection and the authentication of branded goods, including pharmaceuticals.

The development of increasingly sophisticated replication techniques means that counterfeiting has become a significant problem in the pharmaceutical industry. The World Health Organization estimates annual earnings from the global sales of counterfeit medicines to be in the region of $32 billion.

In response, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly evaluating the different methods of product authentication to protect their own revenue streams and the health of the product users. Holograms have become one of the main tools that can be deployed to validate the origins of a product.

Capable of working on many different levels, the hologram offers a cost-effective solution that is far superior to any competing print technology given that it is capable of combining eye-catching and kinetic effects that appeal to human perception not achievable by any alternative means. The hologram serves to authenticate products on three security levels: overt, covert and forensic.

Security levels
The overt security level is the first level at which a hologram can be used to defend against potential counterfeiters. At this level, consumers are able to visually identify that a hologram is present on the packaging and therefore be assured of its genuine nature. It is at this level that most casual or amateur counterfeiters can be beaten.

However, it is unrealistic to expect the hologram to act as an absolute guarantee of authenticity. To ensure authenticity, it is necessary to embed covert or forensic features within the hologram to defeat the more professional counterfeiters. These hidden features can be verified by trained inspectors or agents in the field, and can be hard for potential counterfeiters to simulate and/or copy, but easy to verify using the trained eye or handheld devices.

The majority of known counterfeit attempts have failed at this stage given that although the counterfeit hologram looks the same, the differences can be identified through examination of the hidden features. Examples of such features available from API include SecureText™, Spectralock™, Laser Replayable, UV fluorescence, machinereadable taggants, and variables of these combined.

At all security levels, it is necessary to consider the method of production for the hologram. The hologram is a highly effective authentication feature provided it is made using restricted technologies that are difficult to copy or simulate. For example, the use of holographic labels presents a much higher counterfeit risk because of the wider availability and low cost of production equipment, whereas the Hot Stamping Foil and Holotype™ (all-over laminate) products offered by API present significant technical and cost barriers to the criminal.

Low-cost success
An example of a successful authentication device, produced by API Holographics, was used on the pharmaceutical product GSK Ventolin® Salbutamol, which is manufactured in Argentina. The brand was suffering heavily from counterfeit substitution, but GSK was extremely reluctant to add cost to the packaging. Working with the client, API designed and produced a highly overt authentication hologram, which is now used extensively on this product and has led to an almost complete eradication of the counterfeit product.

This proves that a hologram can offer an extremely effective barrier to counterfeiting and can be considered a comparatively low cost authentication device for the pharmaceutical industry. While there will always be concern that new technologies increase access to competent simulations or potential re-originations, a hologram, when deployed correctly and with the relevant features, will provide a high level of security capable of defending against the most professional of attacks.