Nigerian Drug Maker Uses Authentication Texting

A Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturer has begun supplying the country’s chemists and clinics with life saving medicines packaged with new security codes verifiable by text messaging.

The new packaging contains a code revealed by scratching off a code on the medicine package. The consumer can verify the drugs authenticity by sending a text message of the code to a free SMS number. If the medicine is fake, the consumer will be immediately informed, and a reporting phone number will be provided in a return text message, reports The Nation Online.

May and Baker Nigeria Plc, a local medicine manufacturer, has adopted this technology and created packaging with this new technology for three of its medicine lines: anti-malarials, anti-amoebicides, and analgesics. The technological infrastructure for the program was developed by an African company, mPedigree Network, in assistance with Hewlett Packard.