Sproxil Inc., based in Cambridge, is helping customers in those countries distinguish genuine medicines from fakes. Using a system it calls mobile product authentication, Sproxil allows customers to text a number on the package to confirm or refute the drug’s authenticity. The process “is designed to use the abundance of cellphones to empower the consumers to avoid purchasing fake products,’’ said company founder Ashifi Gogo. “This way, they can reestablish trust between the consumer and the pharmacy.’’
The drug manufacturers who hire Sproxil agree to embed on each package a scratch-off panel, like those used on lottery tickets here and on prepaid cellphone cards in much of the developing world. The customer types in the code revealed by scratching the panel and sends it via a free text message to a Sproxil line. An almost immediate response indicates whether the medicine has been manufactured by a reputable pharmaceutical company or is a fake.
“This is a hugely innovative idea that we think could be a real game changer in terms of how pharmaceuticals are delivered,’’ said Shuaib A. Siddiqui, a portfolio manager with Acumen Fund, a New York nonprofit that invests in companies providing services to the poor in developing countries. “This can really ensure that the poor are getting access to quality drugs.’’
Acumen invested $1.8 million in Sproxil this year on the strength of its idea and the relationships that Gogo has been able to build with major international drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as pharmacies in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and elsewhere.
Gogo, a native of Ghana who received a PhD from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, said he was moved by the magnitude of the counterfeiting problem.
“For tuberculosis and malaria alone, up to 700,000 people die every year due to fake products,’’ he said. “That’s four jumbo jets full of people dying every day.’’
