AlpVision: detecting counterfeit tablets with a scanner

Swiss company AlpVision rounded out its portfolio of anti-counterfeiting technologies with a solution that can be used to authenticate tablets – without any additional markers and using a simple office scanner.

The new approach – marketed under the trade name Fingerprint - relies on the unique and individual characteristics of the tooling in the tablet press. AlpVision has been able to show that punch die sets used in a tablet presses produce tablets with a random and reproducible signature.

The digital signatures associated with the punch die sets used by the original manufacturer are uploaded into a database. Thereafter, simply by placing a tablet on a scanner and querying the database, it is possible to get an ‘authentic’ or ‘fake’ response over the Internet in seconds, via remote access to a secure server.

Testing indicates that the signatures from a single die punch are reproducible over the production of many millions of tablets. While punch sets do deteriorate over time, the wear does not occur at the end compressing the tablet, so the signatures stay constant over the lifespan of the tooling, according to Rolan Meylan, corporate communications manager at AlpVision.

In an interview, Meylan said that the underlying technology is tried-and-tested as it uses the same underlying principles as AlpVision’s existing anti-counterfeiting solutions, used on primary packaging (such as blister packs) and secondary packs such as cartons.

“We started this project at the request of a customer,” he told SecuringPharma.com at the Interphex exhibition in New York last week.

AlpVision’s existing, packaging-based technologies are effective in identifying counterfeit products, but of course cannot handle a scenario where loose tablets are encountered, according to Meylan. Having an authentication system for individual tablets covers that eventuality.

“It is important to identify counterfeit product as quickly as possible after it is found, as this increases the chance that those responsible can be identified and effective enforcement be applied,” said Meylan.

Moreover, a big advantage of AlpVision’s technologies is that they require no incremental production costs. There is no need for a special die punch, or the addition of any other marker, special ink or taggant, allowing the authentication technology to be added in at “zero production cost.”

At the moment the system is in the process of being validated and is “pending industrialization,” accoridng to Meylan. Tests to date indicate it can cope with a broad range of tablet types, including those with coatings, using a simple flatbed scanner. For more complex, rounded shares it may be necessary to use a USB microscope.

Potential applications include testing suspect tablets in authorised testing laboratories, or possibly even authenticating bulk tablets arriving at packaging facilities.

Meylan noted it could even be used to monitor a contract manufacturer, or even detect diversion, for example, if tablets made with one particular tooling set were encountered in an unexpected location.