While part one of this feature examined anti-counterfeiting tech designed to prevent food and beverage fraud, part two is looking at solutions for preventing the counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals and other consumer goods.

Cyber watermark

Source: Purdue University

Biomedical engineers from Purdue University have developed anti-counterfeiting technology for determining the authenticity of pharmaceuticals and medications.

The Purdue team has created a cyber-physical watermark to confirm the authenticity of often counterfeited medications.

Affixed to individual pills using a sugar glue, the watermark is reportedly composed of silk — an edible protein — and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved food dye that is printed via inkjet printer.

To confirm the authenticity of the pill, users can take a picture of the individual pill and the affixed watermark — which is tough for counterfeiters to duplicate — to reveal a hidden digital key, which serves to authenticate the pill.

Edible security tag

Another team of researchers, also from Purdue University, are also attempting to protect prescription drugs from counterfeiting using an edible security tag.

To prevent counterfeiting, the Purdue team is using encryption technology originally designed for information and hardware security to give individual prescription drug tablets and capsules their own digital fingerprints through an authentication process called physical unclonable functions (PUFs).

When stimulated, the thin, transparent films composed of silk and fluorescent proteins that are fused together genetically and built into the medication will render different reactions. When exposed to LED light sources, the fluorescent proteins are activated and produce unique and random patterns. Digital bits extracted from images of the patterns would serve to create the unique security key that patients and pharmacists could use to confirm a medication’s authenticity.

Because each reaction results in a different pattern, they would be tough for counterfeiters and even the pharmaceutical manufacturers to duplicate, according to the Purdue team.

Candy

A bioengineering professor from the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside), has developed a method for preventing pharmaceutical fraud that includes nonpareils, a decorative confectionery of tiny, multi-colored balls composed of sugar and starch.

Noticing that the colorful nonpareils sprinkled atop chocolate drops included an average of 92 randomly placed nonpareils per piece of chocolate and featured eight different colored nonpareils, a UC Riverside professor determined that the odds of the randomly generated candy pattern ever repeating itself are ultimately zero — meaning that each of the candies is unique and, consequently, not duplicated by chance.

Using a method dubbed CandyCode, an edible coating featuring nonpareils could potentially be applied to pharmaceutical tablets and capsules to prevent the occurrence of pharmaceutical fraud. Applied to each pill in a unique pattern or design that could be stored in a database, the researchers propose that consumers could upload an image of the individual pills to be compared against the so-called CandyCode in the pharmaceutical manufacturer’s database.

To demonstrate the potential for the CandyCode concept, Tylenol capsules were coated with edible cake decorating glue and nonpareils and an algorithm was developed that converts photos of CandyCoded pills into text strings that can be stored in a computer database. Once coated and entered into the database, the researchers used the algorithm to analyze CandyCode photos, determining that their respective nonpareil designs could serve as universally unique identifiers, even after simulating conditions encountered during shipping that could possibly disrupt the coating designs.

3D-printed label

A team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong is aiming to improve the anti-counterfeiting measures designed to protect assorted products and, subsequently, the global economy and security.

In lieu of commonly used QR codes and other anti-counterfeiting measures, which can be easily produced thanks to limited data encryption capacity on a planar space, the researchers are attempting to increase encryption density in a limited space using 3D-printing.

3D printing process of polarization-encoded 3D micro-pixels. Source: The University of Hong Kong

The 3D-printing method, according to its developers, produces polarization-encoded 3D anticounterfeiting labels that reportedly encrypt more digital data than 2D labels.

To accomplish this, the team used diphenylalanine (FF), which is a species of dipeptides chosen for data encryption applications thanks to its unique optical properties; specifically, piezoelectricity and optical birefringence, which are due to the material’s crystalline nature.

"Our new 3D printing method combined with nature-driven molecular self-assembly can print multi-segmented 3D FF micro-pixels with programmed crystallinity for high-density data encryption. By utilizing different responses of the amorphous and crystalline segments to polarized light, a tiny single 3D pixel can encrypt a multi-digit binary code consisting of '0' and '1.' The information capacity can be increased to 211 with a single eleventh-segmented freestanding pixel on a tiny 4 µm² area which is 1,000 times smaller than a hair strand," the researchers explained.

Fingerprint

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Nano-Science Center have created an approach for halting the incidence of counterfeiting. The team created a labeling system that produces a unique fingerprint for individual consumer items. The label with the fingerprint is applied before an item leaves the factory. The system, like a previously mentioned Purdue solution, is based on PUF technology.

The researchers tested the system by producing tags consisting of QR-codes printed on paper and sprayed with transparent ink containing various microparticles. Source: Thomas Just Sørensen

The developers explained that the label is composed of transparent ink featuring microparticles that are sprayed on an item’s bar code, forming a random pattern of white dots that cannot be replicated. Before leaving the factory, the fingerprint is registered in a database.

Once the product is purchased, customers can validate its authenticity by scanning the so-called "fingerprint" on an app linked to the team’s database of labels and fingerprints.

This is just an assortment of the currently available technology for preventing counterfeiting.

Check back with GlobalSpec as more anti-counterfeiting and other technology emerges.