April 1, 2021 | Felicity Thomas

Pharmaceutical Technology, Pharmaceutical Technology-04-01-2021, Volume 2021 Supplement, Issue 2
Pages: s29–s31

Dosage-level authentication provides an added digital layer of security for pharmaceutical companies to ensure their products are not exposed to falsification.

Global counterfeit pharmaceuticals trade is estimated to be worth billions and has grown during the coronavirus pandemic (1,2). Various regulatory measures have been implemented to tackle the issue of counterfeit medicines, such as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) in the United States and the Falsified Medicines Directive in Europe (3,4), which require the implementation of safety features, chiefly aimed at secondary packaging.

However, as counterfeiters become more sophisticated and technology advancements enable the falsification of packaging authentication measures, such as barcodes, there is a growing need to improve anti-counterfeiting solutions. One such approach to improved authentication is verification at the dosage level. To discuss the issues surrounding counterfeit pharmaceutical products and the advantages of dosage-level authentication, Pharmaceutical Technology spoke with Ali Rajabi-Siahboomi, vice-president and chief scientific officer, and Gary Pond, global program lead—Authentication, both at Colorcon.