Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals/medical products a 200 billion industry with 20% CAGR: A Technology Cocktails to Solve a Critical Problem on Scale

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals and medical products have become a pervasive issue in today's global market. Not only do these fake products pose serious health risks to unsuspecting consumers, but they also undermine the integrity of supply chains and damage the reputation of legitimate manufacturers. With an estimated market size of $200 billion by 2022, counterfeiters are not slowing down anytime soon. But fear not- emerging technologies like blockchain and near-field communication offer promising solutions for combating this hidden danger. Today we will explore how blockchain along with Near Field Communication can revolutionize supply chain management and safeguard against counterfeit medical supplies.

Have you ever noticed that when counterfeit products are introduced it shrinks the market of genuine manufacturers?

Bigger manufacturers in pharma like #abbott, #roche, #tevapharm, #bayer, etc are impacted badly since it can impact their reputation.

What are Counterfeit pharma products and their current market size and future growth?

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals refer to drugs or medical products that are fraudulently produced and distributed with the intent to deceive consumers. These fake products can vary in their composition, ranging from completely ineffective to potentially harmful substances.

The market size of counterfeit pharma products is alarming, with estimates suggesting that this illegal industry could reach $200 billion by 2022. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that up to 10% of medicines available globally could be counterfeit. Developing countries are particularly vulnerable, as they often lack strong regulatory frameworks for monitoring drug production and distribution.

Unfortunately, the future growth potential for counterfeit pharma products remains high due to several factors, including the increasing demand for cheap drugs and a growing online marketplace where counterfeits can easily be sold. This prevalence presents significant health risks for unsuspecting consumers who may unknowingly take dangerous or substandard medications.

The implication of Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals/medical products

Pharmaceuticals and medical products are a vital part of our daily lives. They help us recover from illness, alleviate pain, and prolong life. However, the production and distribution of these products present significant challenges.

One major problem with pharmaceuticals is the rise of counterfeit drugs in the market. Counterfeit drugs can be hazardous to health as they may contain harmful substances or ineffective ingredients that do not cure illnesses or have adverse side effects.

The manufacturing process for pharmaceuticals is complex; it involves working with various suppliers who provide different raw materials used in drug production. These suppliers may encounter problems such as contamination or substitution of raw materials leading to dangerous counterfeiting.

Another issue is inadequate quality control procedures that result in substandard medications reaching consumers' hands. Substandard medicines could cause serious harm by either being too strong or too weak resulting in an overdose or underdose respectively.

In addition, storage conditions play a crucial role in maintaining medication effectiveness throughout its shelf-life period since some drugs require specific temperatures to remain potent. Still, poor storage conditions can lead to product degradation hence rendering them useless

Counterfeit medical devices are less documented but there is evidence during COVID that counterfeit medical masks lead to infections.  It recently noticed that $7 million worth of aortic pumps were recalled in the US because they contained fake components. The pumps looked genuine but could malfunction and be a cause of death.

Until now there has been no foolproof method for ensuring safe medicines reach patients globally but efforts through technology like blockchain & NFC try to address this challenge!

Current challenges in finding Counterfeit products

One of the biggest challenges in finding counterfeit pharmaceuticals/medical products is their sheer volume. With an estimated global market size of over $200 billion, it's no surprise that counterfeiters are continually seeking to exploit this lucrative industry.

Another challenge is the complexity of supply chains for these products. Medical supplies may pass through dozens or even hundreds of hands before they reach their final destination, making it difficult to trace where exactly a product may have been counterfeited.

Furthermore, many countries lack adequate regulatory frameworks for detecting and handling counterfeit pharmaceuticals/medical products. This can lead to delays in identifying fake products, as well as difficulty in coordinating efforts to remove them from circulation.

Even when such frameworks exist, there remains the issue of enforcement. Many governments simply do not have enough resources devoted to cracking down on counterfeit goods effectively.

Tackling the problem of counterfeit pharmaceuticals/medical supplies requires a multi-faceted approach involving increased regulation and enforcement measures, improved supply chain transparency, and monitoring technologies like blockchain and near-field communication (NFC).

Current Solutions in Market

Their fingerprint technology helps to protect your business from counterfeiters. When raw material is processed, it contains small, microscopic anomalies that exist either naturally or created during manufacturing. U-NICA’s surTRACE technology records these anomalies and allows their customers to verify the product via the materials.

Recording these anomalies is done by advanced camera technology, but it is now also possible to do so with certain new smartphones that have a high camera resolution, making surTRACE even easier to use and even more user-friendly. Spectro TAG from them is a very good approach to be introduced to manufacturing and packing to stop counterfeiting many products. Medicine packages should also have protective identification features like invisible security ink, which helps provide evidence if a product has been tampered with. This will not define the unique identification of packaging. While there can be additional measures like QR codes along with NFCs for products in pharma for being more foolproof.

How Blockchain along with near field communication and tamper-proof invisible paint can solve counterfeit medical products.

As we have seen, counterfeit pharmaceuticals and medical products pose a significant threat to public health and safety. They can cause serious harm or even death to unsuspecting patients who rely on these products for treatment.

However, blockchain technology and near-field communication can provide an effective solution to this problem. By implementing these technologies in the supply chain management of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, manufacturers, distributors, and consumers can ensure that every product is genuine. Packing with tamper-proof invisible paint makes it impossible to make counterfeit introduced to the supply chain.

Blockchain's #blockchaintechnology distributed ledger system provides complete transparency in the supply chain process while also ensuring security through cryptographic algorithms. Near-field communication technology enables users to verify the authenticity of products using their smartphones quickly.

Blockchain distributed ledger can record every step in the supply chain and should be possible to create authorities to sign and accept the medication consignment at different checkpoints. Using the NFC each consignment can be given a unique identification and it will make it impossible to introduce a fake product into the consignment if they are packed along with NFC as ID in addition to the QR code or Bar codes. This is not as easy as said, it has a lot of challenges to overcome which include tamper-proofing, and decentralized consignment approvals using smart contracts.

By adopting blockchain technology and near-field communication(#nfctechnology) in the supply chain management of pharmaceuticals/medical supplies, manufacturers, distributors, and consumers can be assured that their products are genuine. This will significantly reduce the risk of counterfeit products entering the market and causing harm to unsuspecting customers.

Conclusion

Let's use this cocktail of technologies to solve this problem on the scale. There is huge scope for startups to focus on this area. These solutions can not only reduce counterfeit medical products but it can also provide a huge opportunity for new players to enter the market. Government intervention is needed to overcome this problem since it is affecting the lives of citizens across the globe.

Please feel free to contact me in case anyone is interested to discuss and know more about it.