Hologram Industry News

Pharmaceutical counterfeiting and purchasing medicines from the illegal distributions channels have become more and more common and a big problem in India. With the sale of spurious drugs increasing in New Delhi (NCR) by 25 percent per annum, the creation of the NCR Drugs Protection Authority to monitor the activities of fake drugs manufacturers is on the anvil.
For complete story click the link; drug-counterferiting.pdf

Created by HoMAI : Wednesday, 6 Feb 2008
Pharmaceutical counterfeiting and purchasing medicines from illegal distributions channels have become more and more common and a big problem in our country. Difference medicines and drugs are involved. An alarmingly high proportion of anti-malarial drugs brought in pharmacies and shops are counterfeit, and the problem has only increased significantly in recent years. Recent and widespread appearance of counterfeit artesunate tablets in several countries in South-East Asia including India poses a serious threat to health in this region. In some countries, up to 50 percent medicines are fakes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the growing counterfeit drug market is going to be worth a hefty $75 billion globally by 2010.

The difficulty to monitor the spread of fake drugs is that counterfeit medicines are easy to manufacture- they look like genuine drugs in packaging and labeling. Another problems is the wide availability of controlled drugs-narcotics, benzodiazepines, amphetamines and other internationally controlled drugs are easily developed in many developing countries. In addition, countries with weak regulations are most vulnerable to the marketing of counterfeit drugs. Illegal pharmacies and the sale of medicines over the Internet have aggravated the problem further. The rapid expansions of unregulated markets has dramatically worsened the situation. The problem of counterfeit medication and abuse of pharmaceuticals containing controlled substances bought without prescriptions has increased alarmingly and poses graves risks to public health.

The counterfeit drug industry is currently booming with estimates that the black market would reach $75 billion by 2010. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, barcodes and various other solutions have been offered to the industry as security measures. New holograms products like the ones manufactured by an innovative new platform technology which can react to simple stimuli such as breath or water to reveal a hidden image or change colour to confirm a product’s authenticity, promise to be a novel arrow in the quiver of the pharma industry in its attempts to shoot down drug counterfeiters. These smart holograms as they are called, use a variety of polymers between layers of film which are turned to react to different stimuli. The polymers swell as a result of the stimuli and light is refracted in a different way, giving a visual response to verify authenticity. The smart holograms can be integrated into a supply chain to any extent a manufacture chooses, as the hidden image can be designed to fade and reappear as the stimulus is re-applied at a later stage, or employed as a single use feature with the revealed image remaining permanently.

The holograms can be used as a track and trace mechanism. and combined with specialization as well as hidden images to produce both overt and covert security features. The extensive technological research that has gone into the product and the manufacturing complexity will make it an unattractive option for counterfeiters, as is being fervently hoped by the industry.

Bilcare Ltd a leading pharmaceutical packaging and clinical research company has acquired a Singapore based company named Singular ID, for Rs 55 crores ($19.58 billion). The acquisition made through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bilcare Singapore Pte, represents a significant step forward in ongoing war against counterfeit drugs and pharmaceuticals products.
For complete story downloadwar-on-fake-drugs.pdf

New Delhi: 2 December 2007
Holograms are the best method pharma companies can used to fight against counterfeiters. According to Mr. U K Gupta, CMD of Holostik India Limited the Indian hologram business is growing at a rate of 30-35% annually and it will increase more as the counterfeiting drug industry in India is approx $ US 1 billion.
For more news, please click the link:
2-december-2007.pdf

Pune-based pharma packaging company Bilcare Research has launched a product to help check the menace of counterfeit drugs. The product has a label with a unique bar code made out of nanotechnology and fingerprinting.
The customer has to swipe the drug packet in the scanner or at select ATMs to verify the authenticity of the drug. MNC pharma major Pfizer vice-president John L LaMattina was also present at the function, which was attended by former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
Sources: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

According to a recent survey by Mckinsey & Company Indian pharma industry has the highest growth rate
among all spending categories.  Present India pharmaceutical market was estimated at $6.3 billion in 2005. It is expected to touch $20 billion by 2015, with an compounded annual growth rate of 12.3 per cent, the study said. Between 2000 and 2005, the pharma market witnessed a growth rate of 9 per cent. As per sources “ In terms of scale, Indian pharmaceutical market, which is ranked 14th in the world, would be among top 10 by 2015 in the world overtaking Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey”. The incremental  growth of USD 14 billion over the next decade is likely to be the third largest among all markets.
Sources: www.economictimes.com

Worldwidely holograms are used as by pharmaceutical companies as a security product for their brand protection. The Holospot is new weapon against counterfeiting. A holospot security mark is a multilayer label with a small data field containing several safety features. Â
Holospot is a self-adhesive polymer label with an information field of only a few square millimetres. It is firmly attached to the product and contains various overt and covert security features inscribed into the data carrier with a high-resolution laser. It is a protected technolgoy suited for high-security counterfeit protection and effective product tracing.
Source: http://medienservice.land-der-ideen.de/en/ms,58,0,article-64734.html

Smart Holograms is exploiting a technology that uses chemically engineered holograms to detect the presence of specific human disease analytes. The holograms require little or no instrumentation and will change their color when in contact with the target indicator. Their first product based on this technology is a novel glucose sensor for diabetes self-testing.
Source: http://www.holokits.com/holography_news.htm

Guilin Pharmaceutical in southern China make World Health Organization-approved drugs for malaria, each blister pack carefully marked with a hologram.
Source:http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec07/execution_07-10.html

Manufacturers of regulated products in the country may now go to bed with their eyes closed as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has concluded plans to adopt the use of fool-proof holographic labels to secure NAFDAC registration numbers on registered products.
According to NAFDAC correspondent they are using tamper-evident hologram as a measure to fight the counterfeiter.

source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/health/gh517072007.html