Google Invests in Counterfeit Drug Fighting Technology
- By BSTQ Staff
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, has invested $3.9 million in PharmaSecure, a mobile application used to verify medication authenticity using text messaging. PharmaSecure’s anti-counterfeiting product uses SMS messaging to provide consumers with a method for verifying the authenticity of medication by typing a code on a medicine package into their phones and receiving an automated verification in response. Google is researching new applications to meet India’s deadline of July 2012 by which all exported drugs are required to bear unique bar-codes and serial numbers.
In August, Google paid a $500 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice for allowing illegal online pharmacies to advertise to U.S. consumers through its Adwords program. Illegal online pharmacies are notorious purveyors of counterfeit medications, according to a report issued by The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in May 2011. According to the association, “One of the unfortunate consequences of our globalized marketplace … is the likelihood that those counterfeit and substandard drugs will make their way into medicine cabinets worldwide, as online sellers seek bargain prices from questionable distributors, and consumers neglect to question whether the substance they are buying is real medicine.”