Logistics and counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry

Logistics is getting a greater focus in today’s pharmaceutical industry. Critical supply chain level activities such as delivering the product to the end consumer at the right place, right time, in a secure mode and at a competitive operational cost is now a norm.

Visibility in the supply chain is now also taking on a more integral role of every pharmaceutical company’s business model for tracking and allowing medicines to reach the market quickly.

Counterfeiting and the Global Economy

Counterfeit medicines are part of the broader phenomenon of substandard pharmaceuticals – medicines manufactured at sub standard quality and therefore a threat to any patients’ health and unusable for the prescription of diseases. The difference is that counterfeit medicines are intentionally and fraudulently mislabelled with regards to identity or source. Both branded and generic products are not spared from counterfeiting.

Counterfeit medicines range from random mixtures of harmful toxic substances to inactive, useless preparations. In the market occasionally, there can be “high quality” fakes that are produced with the declared active ingredient. In all cases, contents of counterfeits are unreliable because their sources are unknown or vague and always illegal. Fake drugs can cause harm to consumers and sometimes life threatening.

Counterfeit and Supply Chain

The supply chains of today have multiple layers making them vulnerable to brand and product counterfeiting. Each area in the distribution network, right from procuring raw materials to the supplying of product to the end consumer, is a potential point for counterfeit products to enter the supply chain of companies. Transhipment points like warehouses and logistics service providers are particular targets of counterfeit attacks, making it increasingly difficult to manage the flow of goods. This is the reason why effective brand protection begins with efficient supply chain management.

Solutions to Counterfeit

Counterfeiting is increasingly becoming a major global issue even with the implementation of new initiatives, regulatory requirements, FDA guidelines and standards development seems inadequate. Pharmaceutical companies are faced with investing millions of dollars in solutions. The anti-counterfeiting and anti-fraud products available today offer a wide range of reliable options for brand protection. These products make use of the latest technology to provide durable, easy-to-apply, and relatively affordable ways to guard against pharmaceutical counterfeit and maintain consumers’ confidence and safety.

Genesis and Counterfeit

Genesis has adopted the holography solution featuring specialized coating technologies. Authentication of purchased product is simple, and is the only sure way to verify that you are in possession of a genuine Genesis-manufactured product. With two types of holograms, one located on the box and a smaller one affixed on the vial or bottle. There are two numbers located on each of the holograms: one that is exposed, and a hidden secret number.