CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and
ARMONK, N.Y., May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sproxil is using IBM
(NYSE: IBM) technology to help the pharmaceutical industry
reduce drug counterfeiting and allow consumers to verify the
authenticity of prescriptions in seconds with their mobile
phones.
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Through its collaboration with IBM, Sproxil is extending
manufacturers' ability to view and analyze real time consumer data
to detect and prevent drug counterfeiting in developing countries,
where 25 to 50 percent of medicines are believed to be
counterfeit,(1) costing the industry $75 billion a year.(2) With
the collaboration, Sproxil also uses IBM's cloud service to provide
clients with secure, reliable data access virtually anywhere.
Sproxil's pharmaceutical clients, such as Merck and
GlaxoSmithKline, have been able to combat counterfeiting by using
the company's Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) solution to affix
a scratch-off label with a unique code to each package of
medication. Upon purchase, consumers scratch the label to reveal
the code, which they then send via a free text message to a
telephone number provided on the package. Within seconds, consumers
receive a return text message from Sproxil letting them know if the
medication is genuine.
As a part of this process, Sproxil's MPA solution produces a
large, rapidly flowing stream of information concerning
pharmaceutical sales and suspected incidences of counterfeiting
that pharmaceutical manufacturers have access to through Sproxil's
client portal.
To make it easier for its clients to view and analyze this
market data, Sproxil turned to IBM's ILOG Elixir software, which
provides rich visuals such as advanced charts and graphics.
Using these and other new capabilities, pharmaceutical
manufacturers around the world will be able to better manage and
analyze petabytes of transaction data in real time. Now,
pharmaceutical companies can more easily identify patterns in
counterfeiting and deploy their resources accordingly.
Sproxil's new portal featuring ILOG will be launched during the
second quarter of 2012.
"Many of our clients are in locations where high-speed Internet
connectivity is unreliable or nonexistent," said Sproxil Chief
Executive Officer Dr. Ashifi Gogo. "Through our work with IBM, we
can enable our clients to render charts with high-speed, even in
low-bandwidth situations. Through IBM's cloud service, we are also
able offer clients secure and reliable application availability no
matter where they are located," he said.
"Sproxil continues to advance its MPA solution to make it easier
for us to successfully prevent consumers from being subjected to
counterfeit medications," said Chokri
Ahmadi, business director, Merck Group, West Africa
Region. "The new dashboard will allow us to make better use
of the data we receive through the client portal, which in turn
should help our business and our customers."
Counterfeit medicines have become a critical issue for
developing nations, with an impact measured in lives. For example,
of the one million malaria deaths that occur worldwide each year,
200,000 are reportedly the result of counterfeit anti-malarial
drugs. Additionally, the WHO indicates that 700,000 Africans die
annually from consuming fake anti-malarial or tuberculosis
drugs.(3)
"Sproxil and IBM share a commitment to using technology to
protect the health and safety of people around the world," said
Paul Chang, supply chain solutions
leader, IBM. "With the help of IBM, Sproxil and its clients are
making prescription drugs safer for millions of people who live in
areas where counterfeiting is rampant."
Sproxil has been working closely with IBM since 2010, when it
was named the winner of IBM SmartCamp Boston and then received
honorable mention in IBM's SmartCamp World Finals. SmartCamp is an
entrepreneurial contest that introduces start-up companies to
venture capitalists, academia, government and industry leaders who
can help them grow their businesses. After Sproxil's strong
performances in the SmartCamps, the company received an investment
round of funding earlier this year from the Acumen Fund. Sproxil is
also a member of IBM's Global Entrepreneur initiative, which
assists start ups with product development and speeds their
time-to-market.
Using IBM SmartCloud, Sproxil is benefiting from the cost
savings and scalability associated with a cloud environment while
preserving the ability to take advantage of the security, existing
applications, reliability, management and support services more
typical of a private cloud.
IBM has deep expertise in the pharmaceutical industry and works
with most of the world's pharmaceutical and life sciences companies
in support of their discovery and development processes and
providing business analytics to help deliver more personalized
treatments.
For more information on IBM's offerings for companies in the
healthcare and life sciences industries, visit
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/healthcare_solutions/ideas/index.html?re=spf
To combat counterfeiting in the regions where it is most
widespread, pharmaceutical manufacturers around the world –
including several of the top 10 as well as small firms – are
teaming with Sproxil to offer consumers a simple and quick way of
making sure their medication is authentic.
About Sproxil, Inc.
Sproxil is a venture-backed, social enterprise that provides
world-class brand protection services in emerging markets. Through
the company's Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA)
solution, brand owners can connect with their customers in a way
not previously achieved, by helping to ensure the goods they
purchase are not stolen or counterfeit. Sproxil's patent-pending
product verification service allows individuals to text message a
single-use item-specific code found on products using MPA
technology, and receive a rapid response confirming the product's
genuineness or alerting the consumer to report incidents of
suspicious activity to the brand owner. Sproxil's solution is
compatible with any tangible item, and it is already widely used by
leading pharmaceutical companies to curb the multi-billion dollar
counterfeit drug industry. Recognized as innovative and
instrumental in the battle against counterfeiting, Sproxil has won
the IBM SmartCamp Boston Award and the 2009 Clinton Global
Initiative Outstanding Commitment Award, as well as received
regulatory endorsements from the National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control in Nigeria and the Pharmacy and Poisons Board in
Kenya. The company is
headquartered in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, United
States and continues to expand its presence in multiple
countries across Asia and
Africa. For more information,
please visit www.sproxil.com.
1. World Health Organization, WHO Drug Information, Vol.
20, No. 1, 2006.
2. Centers for Medicine in the Public Interest,
21st Century Healthcare Terrorism: The Perils of
International Drug Counterfeiting. September 20, 2005.
3. Global Edge Business Review Vol. 5, No. 6, 2011. "The
Health and Economic Effects of Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals in
Africa," Jeremy M. Wilson and Roy
Fenoff.
Related Links:
Combating Counterfeiting in Africa
Countering Drug Counterfeiters with Small Resources that Produce
Big Results
Sproxil
IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences
Contact:
Nancy Kaplan, IBM
914-766-1849
Mobile: 914-714-2299
nkaplan@us.ibm.com
Jeff Loucks, Sproxil
781-571-9330
jeff@sproxil.com
SOURCE IBM