Counterfeiting across generics and innovator drugs is on the rise, posing threats not just to pharma revenues but also to patient safety, regulatory credibility, and public health systems. WHO estimates that 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified. These fake drugs undermine years of clinical research and can cause irreversible harm or death.
According to data from the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, nearly 6,000 pharmaceutical crime incidents were recorded in 2021, up 38 percent from 2020 and the peak figure since their records began 20 years ago.
In terms of the geographical distribution of counterfeit pharmaceutical seizures, the most significant number was recorded in North America (2,442) followed by the Asia Pacific (1,747), Latin America (770), the Near East (705), Eurasia (646), Europe (374) and Africa (187).
Post-COVID, counterfeiting crimes and seizures continue to grow by more than 10% y-o-y, with counterfeiters focusing on weight loss and psychotropic drugs.
Beyond economic loss, regulatory bodies are tightening compliance norms, FDA, EMA, and WHO are now pushing for digital traceability frameworks, further stressing the need for secure serialization, authentication, and anti-counterfeiting measures.
This calls for leveraging new age technology powered by digital solutions like Blockchain, AI/ML to deter the counterfeiting process.
Building Next-Gen Defense Against Counterfeits
In the US, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act was made into a law in 2013 to address shortcomings around visibility and authenticity; it mandates the pharma supply chain to be completely interoperable by 2023, allowing traceability down to an individual unit.
Based on our deep industry experience, Coforge has been helping life sciences organizations with their strategy and solutions to enable supply chain visibility, ensure authenticity checks, and improve customer brand experience.
Our blog (Digital Solutions for Counterfeit Management) covers guidelines for an ideal ‘Track & Trace Solution. We extend it further by deep diving into the aspects of ‘Product Authenticity/ Counterfeit Management’ in this blog.
We believe anti-counterfeiting must evolve from a reactive compliance cost to a proactive brand protection strategy. By embedding intelligence into packaging, life sciences companies can also unlock insights into geographic product flows, usage anomalies, and consumer engagement, driving greater value from supply chain digitization.
While enabling Anti Counterfeit Solutions at our global customers, we have evaluated multiple COTS and technologies leveraging numeric codes, Blockchain, invisible crypto signatures, and others. Our Point of View for an ideal anti-counterfeiting solution for life sciences industries comprises:
- Non-Imitable Technology: Leverage techniques that cannot be easily replicated, like invisible image tagging, blockchain signatures, or crypto-authentication.
- Minimized Artwork Disruption: Avoid disruptive changes such as adding QR codes or barcodes. Instead, use covert digital tags embedded within logos or brand marks.
- Middleware Integration: Ensure compatibility with existing packaging and printing systems—critical for adoption at scale.
- End-to-End Scalability: Design for use at unit, carton, and pallet levels without compromising performance or visibility.
- Regulatory Compliance: Must be GxP-compliant and audit-ready for all key geographies.
- Tamper Evidence with Intelligence: Combine invisible tags with physical tamper-evident features, creating a dual layer of defense that works both passively and digitally.
Based on these guidelines, Coforge has built an Anti-Counterfeit Solution, leveraging its proprietary Quasar Platform for Gen AI, which can be leveraged to apply invisible image tags at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels during packaging.
Consumers can leverage Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies like Google Lens AND | OR customize apps /portals to check authenticity. This solution is the most difficult to mimic and does not require any artwork modifications.
Key Feature Set Includes
Quasar Gen AI-enabled Image Tagging
Generative AI will be used to create unique invisible image tags for each product (like a UID). This can be done by training the AI on a dataset of existing batch numbers, allowing it to generate new, unique invisible image tags on brand logos/brand names that counterfeiters cannot replicate.
Packaging Middleware Integration
These unique image tags will then be printed on the packaging of each pharma product during the manufacturing process through seamless integration with middleware. (Covertly on Brand Logo and Brand Name)
Authenticity Verification
Consumers will use personalised apps or Google Lens to scan these image tags. Upon scanning, the solution will verify the code against a database of legitimate codes (image tags). If the code matches one in the database, the product is confirmed as authentic. If not, the product is flagged as potentially counterfeit.
Product Marketing Portal
Web Portal, which can provide detailed product information, such as manufacturing date, batch number, expiry date, etc., to further assure the consumer of the product’s authenticity.
Conclusion: Why Coforge?
Coforge brings together deep pharma domain expertise with proven technology platforms to deliver secure, scalable, and regulation-ready anti-counterfeit solutions. With our Quasar Gen AI Platform, we are enabling life sciences companies to:
- Protect patients by eliminating fakes from the supply chain
- Comply with global regulatory mandates like DSCSA, EU FMD, and others
- Build digital trust through transparent, secure verification experiences
Our commitment to responsible AI ensures all models are explainable, auditable, and aligned with ethical AI practices, which are crucial in highly regulated industries like life sciences.
From invisible Gen AI-powered tags to real-time product verification, our solution is engineered for real-world resilience and impact.
To know more, visit Coforge Healthcare & Life Sciences.
