Forensic signature

Throughout the supply chain, there are areas where counterfeit products slip into the system. A particularly vulnerable area is when goods are repackaged. nanoTrust offers brand protection technology for both drug and package.

	nanoTrust forensic fingerprint.

There is a growing need for patients and manufacturers to have confidence that their product is genuine. However, throughout the supply chain, there are vulnerable points where counterfeit products can enter the system. Fake versions of AstraZeneca’s Casodex, used for prostate cancer, and Bristol Myer Squibb’s Plavix, for stroke and heart conditions were seized by the MHRA after they had infiltrated the NHS supply chain.

Patients and pharmacists rely on the manufacturer to have produced and delivered the right product in the corresponding outer packaging that identifies the product. Problems arise when authentic packaging is used to house fake products, but there is no system in place where patients, pharmacists and manufacturers can check the product’s authenticity. This is particularly true with the growing internet trade.

Covert solution
One solution lies in the authentication and correspondence of product and package. There are many options for labelling and tracing packaging, such as RFID, barcodes
and holograms, but these cannot ensure integrity throughout the supply chain as drugs are often repackaged and counterfeiters are adept at packaging replication.

OYSTAR Manesty’s nanoTrust is a unique technology, in which product and batch information is covertly embedded into tablets in a way that is impossible to reproduce. These labels allow information on the product to be matched with the packaging providing traceability and authentication along the tablet supply chain.

nanoTrust applies customised nanoparticles directly into a tablet using a patented process and creates a product and batch-specific fingerprint. The technology is integrated into the tablet production process with no impact on production capacity, providing a cost-effective and highly efficient method of anticounterfeiting protection.

The properties of nano-particles are used to provide a unique code that is covert and can only be authenticated with special knowledge and equipment. Nanoparticles can be combined to provide infinite numbers of unique codes. These can be tailored with sophisticated information relating to the product, such as manufacturing site, date of manufacture and batch number, with complementary information to provide the manufacturer with a unique code or fingerprint according to their specifications. On laser excitation, each code can be identified as a unique fingerprint. The particles
are inert, non-toxic and biologically safe, making them ideal for pharmaceutical applications. The system also has the capability to use different types of small particles according to the individual customer demands.

Coded tablets
OYSTAR Manesty’s nanoTrust applicator can apply a precise amount of nanoparticles to each tablet being produced on a rotary press. A piezo-activated valve delivers a defined quantity of particles on to the upper punch of the tablet press at a precise spot, with the cavity preventing migration of the droplet. The punch then enters the powder bed through compression, creating a tablet and marking the top of the tablet with the signature. The signature can be integrated into the client’s embossing logo and is unaffected by tablet coating.

The labels are stable and will not transfer from the tablet surface. Full software control enables the nanoparticles to be delivered with ultimate precision, at the lowest possible concentrations (<0.002mg), with the application placing no restriction
on normal operating speeds and output rates.

Brand protection
The information on each product and batch, with the signature, is stored on a secure database. Code authentication then takes place along the supply chain by specialised reader equipment. The code contains a host of information relating to the product, which only special excitation will authenticate. This creates the principle of nanoTrust’s integrated brand protection technology, ‘Lock and Key’. The code can be combined with other anticounterfeiting measures on the packaging for further enhanced security.

OYSTAR Manesty has developed the world’s first on-tablet covert anti-counterfeit solution, which will enable manufacturers, retail distributors and pharmacists to provide and authenticate forensic level signatures integrated with a complete brand protection system, and is impossible to copy. Simple and cost effective, the nanoTrust technology provides complete brand confidence.