Sproxil, a US based company that provides world-class brand protection in emerging markets through software and services that work anywhere there are mobile phones, has establishment an alliance with Greenlife Pharmaceutical Ltd, a Nigeria-based distributor for prescription medications, and Bliss GVS Pharma Ltd, an India-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company. Providing protection for the popular anti-malarial drug Lonart, the partnership marks Sproxil‘s first cross-national collaboration between India and Nigeria, allowing Nigerians to verify the authenticity of a crucial anti-malaria drug.
To maintain the integrity of the Lonart brand, Greenlife Pharmaceuticals and Lonart manufacturer Bliss GVS Pharma have instituted a Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) to provide customers a way to verify the authenticity of their product at the point of purchase. Powered by Sproxil advanced technology, the same anti-counterfeiting services were launched by NAFDAC in Lagos last year and continue to prove successful in creating unsafe harbours for counterfeiters.
Sproxils Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) technology capitalizes on technologies that already exist and are readily accessible and easily understood by all levels of society – namely cellular phone SMS capabilities and scratch-off lottery-style labels. The company‘s services allow end consumers to verify with a simple free text message that they are not purchasing counterfeit medication.
The recent Lonart counterfeiting episode, successfully intercepted by NAFDAC officials illustrated the need to collaborate with other stakeholders on a way to abolish counterfeit drugs. Gagan Harsh, general manager of Bliss GVS Pharma states, “while the direct impact on this service in controlling counterfeiting as a menace is yet to be seen, the start has been quite promising and things seem to be moving in the right direction.”
Counterfeit medicines are alarmingly prevalent in developing societies and are an issue that has increasingly plagued Greenlife Pharmaceutical‘s flagship medication, Lonart. “I am quite pleased that Greenlife Pharmaceuticals and Bliss GVS Pharma chose to protect not just their product, but Nigerians as well,” states Sproxil director, Tomi Davies.