Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging News
Magazine
PMPN Article Index
Originally Published October 1999
SPOTLIGHT
Using Covert Codes to Mark Healthcare Packages
Real-time codes, laser marks, invisible inks, and color codes can help a company authenticate its products in the event of a counterfeiting scare.
by Daphne Allen, Editor
The canisters stood on the shelves of the neighborhood drugstore. They bore the familiar label. They even carried a lot number, connoting manufacturing control and traceability. But they couldn't provide the nutritional value described on the label because the infant formula was counterfeit.
Willett's 460si ink-jet printer can use invisible ink.
A few years ago, counterfeits of the popular infant formula Similac appeared in stores in 16 states. The easiest way to determine that the items were counterfeit, explains an article posted at www.onhealth.com, was to compare their paper labels to the authentic formula's silver foil–backed plastic labels. Luckily, these counterfeiters did not have the same labeling technology as Similac's manufacturer had. If they did, however, and had any babies suffered, Similac's manufacturer might have had a more difficult time proving that the batch was counterfeit in order to avoid liability.
Using high-tech labeling, in multiple colors and materials or with holograms and other hard-to-duplicate elements, helps to make the counterfeiter's job harder. It worked in Similac's case. However, another way to authenticate products is emerging—covert coding.
By applying permanent marks that are either invisible, embedded into other codes or package elements, or simply in hard-to-find places, healthcare product companies are able to produce codes that can evade the eyes of a criminal. Counterfeiters won't be able to reproduce the codes because they won't know that the codes are present or because they won't be able to find the covert marks. If they do locate the codes, they may not recognize or be able to reproduce them.
REAL-TIME CODING
Programmable printing, or the printing of variable information that is constantly downloaded from a database, is perhaps the first step toward authenticating healthcare products. "If you print real-time codes with sequential numbering rather than just lot codes, you can pinpoint a bad or inaccurate lot," explains Tom Pugh, vice president of Bell-Mark (Pine Brook, NJ), a thermal-transfer printer provider. "You can't easily reproduce such codes."
Using up-to-the-second real-time coding means that every product can be marked with an individual code. Because counterfeiters are in the business of replicating products quickly, they may not take the time to try to decipher such a real-time coding method. Instead, they may copy one code lifted from an authentic product and apply the single code to thousands of imitations. If a company were to suspect that a particular group of products is counterfeit, it would simply determine how many products were produced at that exact second in time and track where the authentic products should be distributed.
PROPRIETARY CODES
Bar codes and lot codes are a familiar sight on packages. They contain product information for tracking and automatic identification at several points during distribution, including the point of sale. Aside from these ubiquitous marks, however, are other unique marks, such as two-dimensional data matrix codes and specially designed dot patterns.
Unlike bar codes, these other proprietary codes are not intended to be read at the point of sale; instead, they simply exist for a single company's tracking and authentication purposes.
The Videojet Snowflake code.
A few things make these codes valuable weapons against counterfeiting. First, these codes are often so intricate and contain so much data that they must be printed with an extremely high resolution. For instance, according to Joel Fenton of Videojet Systems International Inc. (Wood Dale, IL), its two-dimensional Videojet Snowflake code can contain up to 100 numeric data digits in a 5 X 5-mm code. Counterfeiters may have little trouble reproducing a 1-sq-in. bar code, but they may find it difficult to reproduce a smaller, more-intricate pattern. These permanent, high-quality marks can be produced by either ink-jet or laser-coding systems.
Steven Meyer, vice president of engineering for Laser Ink (San Diego), agrees that laser codes may be able to foil some counterfeiters because the laser marks are printed at such a material depth that they can't be duplicated. However, he says, "As long as laser use is not restricted, its illegal use is at the whim of a counterfeiter's budget."
Nonetheless, the capabilities of the laser may enable companies to disguise the presence of a laser mark. Meyer explains that lasers can be used to mark codes in discreet locations, such as along the seams of a bottle. Also, using a laser, "you can embed codes into unmodified HDPE, which makes the fine codes difficult to see without a microscope," he says. Adds Richard Macklin of Industrial Dynamics International Inc. (Torrance, CA), which produces the Lasetec laser coder: "With a laser, you can mark through the neck of a bottle and place a code on the inside bottom of a bottle. Counterfeiters won't even know that such a code is present on the authentic product."
Avery Dennison Converting North America (Philadelphia) also provides a unique off-the-shelf coding system that involves a laser. In this system, certain powders are put into inks that can be applied through a variety of printing methods. The presence of the powder remains unnoticeable until it is activated by a laser that operates at a certain wavelength, revealing the authenticity of the product by the laser light reflecing a unique color off the area printed with the special inks.
Another benefit of the proprietary code is the fact that each customer's code itself can be unique. Derrick Brewster, sales support engineer for Rofin-Sinar Inc. (Tempe, AZ), says that his firm marks with a laser a nonrepeatable two-dimensional code that can change with each subsequent product marked. If a counterfeiter were to reproduce one of the single codes on a number of items, the original manufacturer could tell by the sheer number of products bearing the same code that the whole group is counterfeit.
INVISIBLE CODES
Perhaps the most logical way to hide a code from a counterfeiter is to make it invisible. Currently, the most popular invisible ink is the type that can be seen only under ultraviolet light.
Alberta Millar, product manager for inks at Willett America Inc. (Fort Worth, TX), explains that her firm's 668 magenta ink fluoresces under a common UV light. The ink, which can be applied to glass, plastic, and coated and uncoated metals, prints discreetly, even on dark surfaces.
To apply invisible UV ink, companies won't necessarily need expensive, high-tech equipment. But they may need a new printing system. The ink can be applied using a common ink-jet printer. However, Andy Millar, Willett's product manager for its continuous ink-jet printer, doesn't recommend using the same printer for both visible and invisible inks. "You should use the same type of ink for the life of the machine. Otherwise, you'll have problems." Therefore, if companies wish to print both visible and invisible codes on their packages, they will need to equip their lines with more than one printer. Likewise, companies will need to add a UV light to their inspection lines.
"The ink also costs a bit more than visible ink," explains Jim Umbdenstock of Griffin-Rutgers Company, Inc. (Ronkonkoma, NY), which offers UV inks and ink-jet printers. However, companies may not use as much invisible ink as visible ink, because they may be printing only a short code for immediate authentication rather than a longer code for distribution tracking.
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Invisible under normal light (top), Videojet's ink fluoresces under UV light (bottom). |
Because these inks can be seen using a common UV light, there is the possibility that counterfeiters could obtain such lights, view the invisible codes themselves, and potentially reproduce the codes onto imitations. However, Willett's Alberta Millar doesn't believe that such a scenario is likely because the "criminals wouldn't even know that the codes are present in the first place."
For companies that want to avoid this risk altogether, there are other invisible ink technologies emerging. For instance, by adding near-infrared fluorophores to ink, Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, TN) has developed a coding mechanism that is invisible except when viewed in near-infrared light. According to the Eastman's Web site, "near-infrared light
Videojet and Avery Dennison Converting have another solution. Both have developed inks that remain invisible until activated by a pen that holds a specially designed secondary fluid. Explains Dawn Hudock, Videojet's supplies product manager: "You can't see the code without the use of a secondary fluid, which we currently supply in a pen form. After the covert codes are applied, if the firm comes across a questionable product, it just needs to use the pen with the secondary fluid to reveal the covert code." Because the conversion from invisible to visible is permanent, Hudock explains that in order to verify that the codes are applied correctly, companies would only have to use random sampling instead of 100% inspection.
Pete Kuzma, Avery Dennison's director of new business ventures, explains that to keep the pen-activated ink system secure, the pens are tightly regulated. "Each pen has a serial number, and when a pen has run out of its fluid, the users need to trade in the old pen in order to get a new one."
COLOR CODES
A unique way to covertly code healthcare products is by using color-coded polymeric particles called Microtaggants, which come from an unlikely source. Originally developed by 3M to trace bomb explosives, the particles are composed of a highly cross-linked melamine plastic that contains multiple stratified layers of color. The arrangement or sequence of the colors constitutes a specific code, which could translate to a product batch number or other alphanumeric code, explains Bill Kerns, president of Microtrace Inc. (Minneapolis), the only licensed producer of the codes. Each color has a numeric value. The codes, which are in the shape of random irregular flakes, can be incorporated into labeling, film, plastics, and other types of packaging materials.
Kerns says that particle use could help companies avoid the liability that often arises from problems with a counterfeit product. If the particles are simply not present in the questionable product, the company can prove that it did not produce the counterfeit item.
A REAL THREAT?
True, instances of counterfeiting like the Similac case don't happen very often in the United States. Companies that market their products internationally are more likely to be victims of counterfeiters than those companies that distribute their products domestically.
However, with international trade becoming more and more common and with the prevalence of consumers searching the Internet for discounted healthcare products, the threat to U.S. companies is increasing. Also, as the demand for nutritional supplements increases, so does the likelihood that popular brands of vitamins and herbs could be copied as well.
Adopting a covert-coding method is a significant capital investment, especially since the undertaking will involve coders, coding supplies, and code inspection systems. But, says Industrial Dynamics's Macklin, "Companies invest a lot in their names and trademarks, so they should protect them."
