A United States federal government agency announced an innovative collaboration effort with mPedigree Network at the World Bank office during a take-off ceremony in Accra. The goal of this collaborative effort is to increase the security of drug packaging and to empower consumers to verify the authenticity of medicines. mPedigree Network was the winner in the innovation category of the 2011 African Business Awards, the winner in the start-up category of the Global Security Challenge, and the winner of the 2011 grand prize of the UNESCO-sponsored NetExplorateur Awards. mPedigree Network, a member of the Ashoka Globalizer and World Economic Forum communities, globally pioneered a system for preventing criminals or terrorists from successfully penetrating the legitimate supply chain of medicines. The system is highly suited to low-resource environments where the only available technology is often basic mobile phones capable of SMS text messaging. The mPedigree goldkeys technology provides pharmaceutical companies with cloud computing based tools, developed jointly with U.S. computing leader Hewlett Packard, to mark each package of medicine with a unique code and hide it from plain view with a scratch-off strip. Consumers reveal the code by removing the strip and then text-message it to a universal shortcode in a growing number of African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Efforts are also underway to make the service available in some Asian countries. The text message is free, and phones, even those with no airtime credit, can be shared amongst pharmacists and patients within the community. Consumers receive a response on their phone within an average of 20 seconds that confirms the originality of the pharmaceutical and provides essential information about the drug such as its true expiry date and batch number. The partnership involves a nine-month research and development contract provided by the United States Government to mPedigree Network through the Inter-Agency Technical Support Working Group. The contract will allow for further enhancements of the mPedigree Network technology platform to ensure greater responsiveness of the system and to improve upon its ability to contribute to wider human security and public health outcomes in a number of major African countries. “The growing number of telecom partners supporting the project has increased the need to strengthen the network coordination layers of the technology platform,” said Todd Brethauer, TSWG Science Advisor. “The collaboration being announced today will ensure that mPedigree Network has the required tools to maximise the benefits of such broad support in order to promote positive public health outcomes and address other supply chain security challenges.” Several incidents of patients being harmed as a result of contact with counterfeit, fake and sub-standard pharmaceuticals have been reported. For example, an initiative known as DQI of the U.S.-based organisation, US Pharmacopeia, reported in 2010 the results of a survey in which 44 percent of pharmaceuticals in circulation in Senegal failed basic quality tests. “While our project offers legitimate pharmaceutical companies the means to strengthen their brand protection systems, thereby securing innovation and investment, its importance goes beyond brand protection and contributes to public health, safety, and consumer protection,” said Selorm Branttie, mPedigree Network’s Country Strategist. “Increasing adoption of this technology should ensure that patients are empowered to choose only legitimate medicines duly certified and monitored by pharmaceutical regulatory agencies. We are extremely delighted to receive this support from the U.S. Government. We feel very motivated to ensure that millions of Africans, regardless of background, benefit from the peace of mind that comes from knowing that their medicines are coming from genuine and trusted sources.” Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana