Originally Published PMPN October 2003
NEWS
Brand Protection on Demand |
| To foil counterfeiters, Zebra Technologies offers labels that carry taggants and that can be encoded during . |
Zebra Technologies (Vernon Hills, IL) has announced a family of bar code printing tools and technologies aimed at deterring product counterfeiters, diverters, and gray marketers. Zebra Brand Protection Solutions is the firm's new line of secure printer labels, tickets, tags, ribbons, and readers for a number of products, including pharmaceuticals.
"Most pharmaceutical companies are using bar codes to identify goods throughout the supply chain, so using bar codes to fight brand fraud means these firms don't have to change their processes," says Fred Zaeske, vice president and general manager, Zebra Genuine Supplies. "There are other options out there, but they require firms to add additional steps to manufacturing and packaging."
Included in the family are a number of options, much of which involves on-demand printing. "Counterfeiters are constantly trying to crack your codes, so you should constantly change them," says Zaeske. "On-demand printing allows you to do so." For instance, Zebra provides labels and tags that can be encoded overtly and covertly as they are printed, says Zaeske.
Theo Bielowicz, products specialist for Zebra Genuine Supplies, says that the ribbons themselves can contain taggants that will transfer during printing so the taggant's size and particle ratio can be used to identify the products. "The taggants can be produced in a graphic that can serve as a fingerprint," adds Zaeske. The ribbons can also be supplied with embedded fibers that contain magnetic codes that can be used to verify the ribbon's source.
Coupling on-demand printing with other security measures provides the best defense, Bielowicz says. "More than one technology should be used so there are several levels of protection."
Bielowicz explains that Zebra has worked with several technology partners, such as Appleton (Appleton, WI), to provide label paper stock with taggants and magnetic threads. The taggants can contain particles that fluoresce under UV light, that can be read with a device for the naked eye, or that can be read with a laser to identify the taggant's unique wavelength. The magnetic threads can be hard coded with incremental codes or stagnant codes that cannot be changed without destroying the thread's fibers.
Zebra is also carefully controlling its products' supply chain so that counterfeiters cannot get a hold of the very technology intended to outsmart them. And Bielowicz recommends that pharmaceutical firms do the same. "Control everything, even scrap. Keep it under lock and key."
Copyright ©2003 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
