(A column highlighting scientific, technological, engineering, and design innovation in Africa)
mPedigree Network came into being to counter the scourge of counterfeit and substandard medicines in Africa that cause the death of an estimated 2,000 people each year.
Often, those who sell medicine in Africa are not pharmacists. According to a study published by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, fake and poorly made malaria drugs contributed to the deaths of more than 100,000 children across Africa in one year alone. In November 2008 in Nigeria, 84 infants died after consuming a particular brand of syrup to ease teething pain. Investigators found that the manufacturer had replaced the harmless medicine solvent, propylene glycol, in one batch of syrup with the industrial solvent diethylene glycol, which attacks the human central nervous system and causes liver damage and kidney failure.
Formally launched in Ghana in 2008 by local social entrepreneur Bright Simons, 33, mPedigree pioneered software that allows legitimate pharmaceutical companies to authenticate their products. The company maintains a central registry of “pedigree” information on the product brands of manufacturers who sign on to the network. Participating manufacturers then can label each packaged item with an mPedigree-generated 12-digit code hidden under a scratch-off panel on the packaging. Consumers who purchase an item from a manufacturer in the network can text the code to mPedigree free of charge and receive an immediate response from the registry verifying the authenticity of the item.
A Goldkey sign (a transparent key embossed on a golden padlock) on a product’s packaging indicates participation in the mPedigree anti-counterfeiting network.
mPedigree says it now has labels on more than 500 million drug packets and counts among its pharmaceutical clients such blue-chip brands as AstraZeneca, Roche, and Sanofi. Its authentication mobile and web platforms operate in partnership with more than two-dozen telecom operators, Fortune 500 technology companies, and regulatory agencies in several countries, serving manufacturers of a range of commonly faked goods, from makeup to electrical cable.
mPedigree’s “supply chain transformational technology,” the core of which Simons invented in 2005, has garnered numerous awards, including a 2011 TIGA (Transformation In Government Award) in Kenya; a 2011 African Business magazine award; Tech 4 Africa’s 2011 Grand Prix NetExplorateur Award; runner-up status for Health-Care IT in the 2011 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards; Best Start-up award in CIO magazine’s 2010 Global Security Challenge; and Nokia Corp.’s Calling All Innovators award in 2009.
In 2013, the International Foundation for Africa Innovation gave Simons a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to innovation in Africa.
