prepaidafrica:Telling apart legitimate medicine from the fake is a big problem in many parts of th
prepaidafrica: Telling apart legitimate medicine from the fake is a big problem in many parts of the world, especially Africa. But as with many innovations in that area of the world, a simple text message may do the trick. Bharti Airtel has partnered with Ghanaian founded US tech company Sproxil to crack down on counterfeit pharmaceuticals in Africa using just a mobile, a scratch-off label, and an SMS message. And the technology may extend to other businesses too. Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) system puts a code underneath a scratch-off label on medicine packets, and allows consumers to text the code free of charge to Sproxil to verify the products’ authenticity, which is checked against a database and a confimation text sent back. They also run a hotline for consumers to report suspicious products. Up to now, Sproxil has operated in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and India but the collaboration with Bharti Airtel will enable the expansion of MPA into the 17 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which Bharti runs mobile phone networks, with a combined population of 450m people. Via Scratching out Africa’s counterfeit medicines - FT blog -- source link