Six Degrees Counterfeit Prevention Announces Release of Revolutionary Hybrid Barcode

A United Nations report lists fake medicines as the "greatest concern" when it comes to counterfeit goods. According to the California Board of Pharmacy, ”In an attempt to prevent counterfeit medicine from entering the legitimate supply chain in California…current law states that no wholesaler or pharmacy may sell, trade or transfer a prescription drug at wholesale without providing, and no wholesaler or pharmacy may acquire any prescription drug without receiving, a pedigree.” An e-pedigree is an electronic record uniquely identifying each saleable unit, a reference to each sales invoice, and identifying each trader who has handled the item. By January 2015, 50% of all individual packaged units that pharmaceutical companies ship to their customers in California must have serialization and e-pedigrees, and by January 2016, this figure goes up to 100%.

With the forthcoming pharmaceutical legislation nearing commencement, Six Degrees Counterfeit Prevention is excited to announce the release of their revolutionary hybrid barcode. The solution leverages widely used logistic symbols, such as a 2-dimentional GS1-DataMatrix or QR Code, combined with the encryption technology provided by Six Degrees. The symbols may be read by common readers and smartphones to obtain item identity, unique serial number, packaging Lot Number and expiration date. In addition, the encryption technology provided by Six Degrees can be used to authenticate the information. Designed to be readable by any smartphone or standard warehouse scanner, Six Degrees’ hybrid barcode complies with California law, by providing interoperability between all supply chain partners, including third-party logistics providers (3PL’s), wholesalers, hospitals, pharmacies, patients and/or care providers, as well as providing outstanding track and trace capabilities, counterfeit protection, and alerts for dosage, recall and/or expiration.

“We are seeing an increased emphasis on implementing solutions to track and authenticate drugs by not only manufacturers but also contract packagers and 3PL organizations,” said Bill Fletcher, Managing Director for Pharma Logic Solutions, who has personally developed authentication, tracking and serialization strategies and requirements for over 15 global life sciences companies. “Earlier in 2012, an industry consortium demonstrated that it can collaborate on a US federal solution, although the lack of unit authentication and implementation in the 2020 decade failed to convince legislators. Now, after years of discussion and preparation for California e-pedigree law, a 2008 commitment by many leading life sciences companies to be ready for the law by 2015, emerging international traceability requirements, maturing commercial solutions for traceability in life sciences, serial number guidance from the FDA and U.S. Pharmacopeia, companies are now taking authentication serious. Resources are dwindling as interest increases,” said Fletcher.    

Unlike the existing counterfeit “solutions”, which include holograms, special inks, taggants, DNA markers and regular barcodes that can be copied by counterfeiters, Six Degrees utilizes a unique polymorphic, non-mathematical encryption method that encrypts data into a 2D barcode and eliminates the need for a database. It is impervious to cryptanalysis, brute force, rainbow tables or other attacks. Called a “game changer” by some experts in the industry, the uncrackable codes serve as digital signatures which enable law enforcement, customs officials or consumers to verify product authenticity by scanning and unlocking the codes with a smartphone or standard warehouse scanner. Even if a code is copied and replicated on counterfeits, the code can only be authenticated once and the unique encryption prevents counterfeiters from reverse engineering the algorithm and producing new codes.

Reid Graves, who has vast experience working in the pharmaceutical industry, said, “Six Degrees Counterfeit Prevention will enable mass serialization for the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries, ensure brand protection, and prevent counterfeiting, providing end-to-end e-pedigree, recall control, and ensure hack-proof security for all data without requiring special hardware or readers. Additionally, Six Degrees’ system is a micro database-less technology which eliminates the need for an expensive online product database by a pharmaceutical company.”

Developed in Israel over a span of 10 years, Six Degrees’ unique encryption method is the most powerful counterfeit protection, grey market detection, track and trace, and marketing acceleration solution on the market today. For more information, please email info(at)6DCP(dot)com.