Investing in Protecting Pharma Products

ForgeStop’s connected product technology assists manufacturers to build near-field communication (NFC) technology into pharmaceutical products and packaging, but is it worth the investment? Terry Katz, CEO and co-founder, explains how the CPHI Pharma Award-winning product’s authentication and brand protection properties are worth including in a company’s track-and-trace strategy.

To combat some of the concern companies had with the price, the company added value for supply chain, marketing, regulatory, and government functions. Its offerings now include electronic product information (ePI) and diversion alerting. Brands learn the first time someone authenticates a product in a region where it shouldn’t be, rather than after an incident, and can automatically display messages such as “not approved for this region.”

Katz urges brands not to measure counterfeiting only as lost sales. Negative effects of counterfeit products can lead to patients blaming the brand, leading that patient to not buy or recommend it again.

On ePI, Katz says many large European pharma companies appear unprepared. He explains that ForgeStop tap does not open a static landing page; the system builds the experience in milliseconds, checking batch and lot, the user’s region, brand-defined recall rules, and diversion alerts. It serves current regulatory content, reflecting an update on the next scan, in the right language and with region-specific warnings.

Per-product cost was once the main barrier to the product’s use, but added value and falling NFC prices mean ForgeStop now tags drugs costing a couple of dollars. Pharma’s slow pace, regulatory hurdles, and caution about changing production lines remain, though ForgeStop adds equipment without changing processes.

Click the video above to watch the interview.

Watch part 1 of the interview here.