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The counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals continues to be a major worldwide problem with serious public health and economic consequences. In theory, anticounterfeiting tags could help to solve this problem. Unfortunately, there are currently no practical, effective tags that significantly resist counterfeiting. One possible solution is a relatively low-tech and low-cost approach called the ‘Call-in the Numeric Token’ (CNT) technique. It relies on participation by pharmaceutical customers (possibly including consumers). They check, via phone or the Internet, on the validity of the unique, random, unpredictable identity (ID) number assigned to each pharmaceutical container they possess. The numerical container ID is a virtual tag or token, rather than a physical one that is susceptible to counterfeiting. Counterfeiters are hampered by being unable to reliably guess valid IDs, by being unable to easily acquire large numbers of existing valid IDs, and by being detected when multiple customers report the same IDs. At least some counterfeit products can be detected even if only a small percentage of customers participate. The technique is particularly well suited for single-dose (‘unit of use’) packaging, but can otherwise be adapted and automated for resellers, wholesalers, repackagers, and other high-volume customers. While this technique will not completely eliminate counterfeiting, using the CNT technique can make pharmaceutical counterfeiting easier to detect and study. |
