BY CHIOMAOBINNA

IN a renewed effort at combating the counterfeiting, diversion, tampering and trademark infringement of pharmaceutical products in the country, Janssen-Cilag pharmaceuticals with support of Johnson and Johnson of United States, has introduced a national anti-counterfeit Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) device to protect its brand – Nizoral tablets and creams. MAS, which uses the Sproxil technology is the latest among a series of technological initiatives aimed at stemming the tide of counterfeiting.

The MAS utilises a one-time-use code on product and text the code to a “911 for fake products” number, which is identical on all cell-phone networks. Country Manager, Janssen-Cilag, Mr. Clifford Emenike, said “MAS is about the most fool-proof of all the technologies currently. This one cannot be tampered with without collaboration with the GSM network providers. And one good confidence is that the scratch card that we are using has never been faked up till now and it is already 10 years that we have been using phone scratch cards.”

Janssen-Cilag Area General Manager, Near East West Asia & African Territories (NEWAAT), Mr. Fady Khayat added: “We think that is the best thing to have happened in the war against counterfeiting, which is 30 to 40 per cent more prevalent in developing than developed countries.”

Demonstrating the procedure, Dr. Ashifi Gogo Chief Executive Officer Sproxil inc. said the solution enables consumers to text message an item-unique code for rapid response that confirms a product’s genuineness. Deputy President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Olumide Akintayo assured that the PSN as a major stakeholder in the battle against drug counterfeiting and faking encourages these methodologies.

“Even though as experimental scientists, we must continue to posit that the most authoritative and scientifically acceptable mode of ascertaining bio-equivalence and chemical equivalence of drugs is through assay/analysis in standard quality control laboratories in the event of outright drug faking.”