What does forgery-proof mean?
Preventing product piracy through security features
The issue of forgery-proofing is a major challenge for numerous companies in many different industries. Food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics manufacturers, the medical device industry and the automotive industry, among others, have to protect themselves against counterfeit products. This is because product piracy and substandard counterfeits can endanger consumers, reduce the economic success of companies and cause lasting damage to their reputation.
An effective means of combating counterfeiting is to increase the forgery-proofing of goods. This is achieved through additional security features on products and packaging.
Marking products forgery-proof
What options does the industry have to protect against counterfeiting?
Good counterfeit protection is provided by a combination of different measures. These include security features such as first-opening protection and identification features that are applied as permanently as possible, such as individual codes, numbers and markings.
Options for effective product protection include, for example
Serialization: printing a unique serial number on each individual product, which ensures traceability throughout the product's life to the manufacturer
Coding: equipping the product with barcodes or 3D codes that can be used to read unique product information by machine
Direct marking: tamper-proof marking directly on the product, without a label or type plate, using a laser printer or inkjet printer depending on the surface
Pharmaceutical industry: pioneer in product protection and traceability
What makes medicines forgery-proof
The pharmaceutical industry plays a pioneering role in forgery-proofing. Since February 2019, prescription medicines have had to bear certain security features in accordance with EU directives:
- First-opening protection
- Individual pack number
Using the Securpharm digital anti-counterfeiting system, the codes on the pharmaceutical packaging, which contain the individual pack number, are scanned in the pharmacy and thus subjected to an additional authenticity check before they are issued to patients.
The German anti-counterfeiting system for medicines is part of a European protection system in which all European countries are to be integrated by 2025.
