[nanoPost] High-resolution encryption technology

Company USA

The company is specializing in nanometer-scale manufacturing and applications development for the life science and semiconductor industries.

The patented and proprietary nanofabrication technology that allows for unmatched flexibility, accuracy and also its high-resolution encryption technology, the company is able to offer its pharmaceutical customers innovative solutions to fight counterfeiting and illegal diversion of blockbuster pharmaceutical products.

Other key applications include nanoscale additive repair, and nanoscale rapid prototyping.

Pharmaceutical Brand Protection

Counterfeiting is a worldwide issue with almost anything of value in the marketplace at risk. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ten percent of the world's pharmaceuticals are counterfeit. In Russia, twelve percent are fake, in Mexico, forty percent, and in Nigeria, up to eighty percent. Additionally, fifty percent of all drugs purchased on the internet are fake.

More than $35 billion in pharmaceutical revenue and $40 billion in aircraft parts revenue is lost each year to counterfeiting. Beyond the usual currency and luxury watches, counterfeit drugs affect not only manufacturers and retailers—the practice also can have damaging effects on the health and safety of the consumer:

In early 2006, a shipment of 25 pallets of Tamiflu® was seized in Chicago because they were fake (source: International Chamber of Commerce's BASCAP Counterfeit & Piracy Intelligence Report).

13 year old Kidney-transplant patient Tim Fagan nearly died after taking counterfeit Epogen—a drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells—which he purchased from a CVS pharmacy in Long Island several years ago. The drug was diluted 1/20th strength.

Distributors recalled more than 18 million tablets of the popular cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor in 2003, after patients received bitter-tasting counterfeits with little active ingredient. It was one of the largest prescription drug recalls in U.S history.

Illegal diversion (or parallel trade) of goods is a global issue that causes significant revenue losses for manufacturers. Products are sold to wholesalers in other countries at discounted prices. A diverter then sells the cheaper product to another country's wholesaler at a price that provides them a profit, but also allows the original wholesaler to undercut the fair market value. The manufacturer loses the revenue differential between the discounted price it was sold for to the original wholesaler and the final fair market value.

The company has developed a unique anti-counterfeiting and illegal diversion solution to combat this problem: the technology process provides for full authentication and traceability of a product, at the unit level, throughout its supply chain.

The practice of counterfeiting and illegal diversion affects products beyond pharmaceuticals, including the authenticity of currency, auto and aircraft parts, medical devices, ID cards, consumer and luxury goods, software, tobacco, electronic parts and more. NanoInk has targeted pharmaceuticals first, but is now extending its its technology to other highly counterfeited industries.

The encryption technology is a layered pharmaceutical brand protection solution based on proprietary nanolithographic encryption technology. While overt techniques exist, and provide easy field identification, overt technologies alone can't protect a brand. If counterfeiters can see a label, they will defeat it. The encryption technology incorporates semi-overt, covert and nanoscale forensic features at the unit dose level which can also be linked to the package level for a multi-layered protective shield.

An authentic package does not certify authentic content. Counterfeiters and diverters routinely switch units and re-package them. Also, legitimate U.S. drug distributors repackage products, which necessitates a unit level solution. A solid brand protection strategy demands authentication at the unit level. Technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), color shifting dyes and marking schemes work overtly or at the package level, but the encryption technology is the only technology that provides deeply covert traceability at the unit level.

Total, Fully Traceable Security

The encryption technology's nanoscale cryptography can only be detected with highly specialized authentication tools located at centralized centers. This stringent, molecular-scale lock-and-key model ensures complete brand security through all points in the supply chain. Authentication testing is done quickly (within 24-48 hours) and in a completely non-destructive manner, providing forensic evidence.

The encryption technology on each tablet is directly linked to granular batch-specific data, including serial number, manufacture date, manufacture location and supply chain ship-to locations. The pharmaceutical company is in strict control of which encryption data points are coupled to each batch.

Minimal Manufacturing Changes
Pharmaceutical companies must protect their brand integrity while continuing to run efficient and cost-effective production processes. The encryption technology was designed around a trusted manufacturing technology familiar to every pharmaceutical company. Its throughput is on par with current manufacturing processes, so the encryption technology can be easily inserted into the existing manufacturing environment.