Fake drugs and phones

According to the WHO, between 10 and 30% of medicines sold in the developing world are fake. One study, by the Wellcome Trust in the UK, found that 38% of anti-malarials sold in South East Asia contained no active ingredient. At best, these fakes are dangerous; at worst, they are deadly.

Pharma companies have tried to counter the problem by introducing anti-counterfeit measures, such as holograms on the blister packs. But this has just resulted in the counterfeiters doing what they do best: counterfeiting.

A new service called M Pedigree, being developed in Ghana, hopes to get around the problem. It works via SMS. When a person buys a medicine in a country using the system they would scratch off a panel on the bottle or blister pack to reveal a code. They then send this via SMS to a number which in turn sends a message back to tell the person whether the medicine is real or fake. The service would be free.

Co-founder Ashifi Gogo told me the service is funded directly by the genuine drug manufacturers, who obviously have an interest in trying to reclaim their lost markets. They are currently trialling the technology in Ghana and hope to roll it out in Nigeria next year.