Increase in Drug Tampering Reports & Loss Prevention Spark New Security Considerations
Photo Above: Your profits and consumer loyalty can explode and literally “go up in smoke”, just as these defective (fake OEM) batteries did. Take simple steps in loss prevention through security packaging.
Efforts to identify and intercept phony medications are taking on a greater urgency amid increased concerns that tampering and counterfeiting may become an attractive vehicle for organized crime rings and even terrorists. Very few companies treat these events as viable loss prevention opportunities.
The profitability of expensive new drugs used to combat cancer and other diseases along with the growth of Internet and cross-border purchasing has raised the potential for exploitation motivated by greed.
Over the last decade there’s been a huge increase of tampering with or copying high value drugs that were largely injectables; now the trend seems to be more in changing labels-buying low potency materials then affixing high potency labels.
For example, vials of the anti-anemia drug Epogen were discovered with phony lot numbers. After analyzing the contents, the drug’s manufacturer sent letters alerting pharmacists and distributors that the vials each contained 2,000 units of the drug-far less than the 40,000 claimed on the labels.
A month later, manufacturer Ortho Biotech Products issued a warning to health care professionals that counterfeit lot numbers of their anti-anemia drug Procrit had been uncovered in Texas. In the process of the Epogen investigation, the Procrit vials were also found to contain concentrations of the active ingredient 20 times lower than the amount listed on the labels. How does this affect you, the consumer? How does this affect you, the brand owner? Simple: as a consumer, any fake drug can kill you. As a brand owner, lawsuits can cripple your company, and loss of public faith in your product could be devastating.
Photo Above: Security Label. Where is the covert feature? In the ink? In the adhesive? In the varnish? Just on page three? As a brand owner, only you will know, and this can be changed from production run to production run.
Consider the following loss prevention steps.
Secure your packaging against counterfeiting, tampering, fraud and diversion. This requires collaboration with someone who has the expertise and resources to provide a solution that is tailored specifically for your brand. ATL is one of the most respected security solutions providers. We offer a wide variety of technology, and we have the engineering capability to design, manufacture, and implement a security packaging solution that makes sense for you.
Photo Above: Security Labels can be “tracked and traced” all over the world, in a matter of seconds. This is a very valuable attribute for inventory controls and loss prevention.
Our printing, holographic, and overt/ covert layering production experience allows ATL to customize a security solution that can incorporate a combination of security layers such as holography, forensic digital codes, micro text, serialization, bar-coding (including 2D), track and trace, and tamper evident materials. We can combine these techniques to develop an effective security packaging solution that can work in combination with each other, or as a rotated defense (different features with varried production runs).
Photo Above: Jim Stiglich and Jeff Lord (ATL Security Label Specialists) travel the globe educating consumers and brand owners alike in anti-counterfeiting loss prevention.
Many of these solutions add a decorative dimension to your package – adding brand authentication and brand protection to your design. These same solutions reaffirm to your customers that you care about their safety and well being. And here is the kicker….
Loss Prevention. As a brand owner you can solicit your insurance company to reduce your rates. You can prove to them that you have the necessary security features that will aid law enforcement agents in the field. You will also have the evidence in place that will stand up in court. At pennies per unit, isn’t preventing a loss worth your time and effort?
Photo Above: Donald Dobert, President, ATL, speaks at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (Cold Chain Conference). The subject was anti-counterfeiting and loss prevention. Other speakers included Phil Viggani (ID Global Corp.), Nathaniel Lipkus (Gilbert’s LLP, Lawyers, Patent & Trademark Agents), and Craig Thurber (United States Department of Homeland Security).
Earl Nightingale said it best: “As Ye Sow, Ye Shall Reap…..”
“We will receive not what we idly wish for but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service.”
