Fighting fakes with new hologram labels

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Registered medical products will soon carry new holograms with enhanced security features as fake holograms on several prescription drugs and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines have been detected.
The Pharmaceutical Services Division of the Ministry of Health was notified of two cases of medicines bearing fake Meditag hologram labels recently, in Kedah and in the Klang Valley.
One was an OTC ointment and the other was a cholesterol-lowering drug.
The fake holograms were reported to the enforcement authorities by the product owners, who found them on sale in small pharmacies.
Principal assistant director of the division’s enforcement unit, Ahmad Nozrin Taharin, said that a syndicate is believed to be faking these security holograms, which were solely licensed to Mediharta Sdn Bhd.
"We are carrying out surveillance and we have narrowed down our list of suspects," he said, warning that licensed pharmacies which sold products with the fake labels risked having their licences revoked.
In May last year, Mediharta was given the sole licence by the Health Ministry to sell hologram labels to drug companies to beat the booming trade in counterfeit and unregistered medicines.
The holograms, which are imported from France, are affixed on the packaging of all registered drugs, including traditional medicines, sold in the country.
The labels, among others, bear the name of the Drug Control Authority under the Health Ministry, serial number, a hibiscus (national symbol) security feature, and Meditag logo.
Mediharta chairman Datuk Dr Mohd Nordin Mohd Nor said the new security-enhanced Meditag hologram was introduced to enable consumers to check the authenticity of the medical product at the point of sale.
"It comes with a polaroid optical security feature which will enable the purchaser to distinguish the fake from the genuine using a polaroid-detecting gadget," he told the New Sunday Times.
All licensed pharmacies will have the gadget.
The consumer can immediately verify the authenticity of the product by placing the Meditag hologram under the gadget and turning it back and forth at a 90-degree angle.
"When they do that, they will see the security feature appear and disappear. This is just one of the new security features that have been added."
Dr Nordin said pharmaceutical companies could continue to use the old holograms until they exhaust their stock.
He said the security features in the old holograms were mainly to assist the ministry’s enforcement officers in weeding out fake and unregistered medicines. However, it was not easy for the public to differentiate between fake and genuine labels.
"This new security feature has been included to build consumer confidence in the product they are buying.
"We are aware that cheats will never stop trying to beat the system, so we will continue to enhance the security features in the hologram from time to time."
The Pharmaceutical Services Division seized 12,242 counterfeit and unregistered medical products last year.
In the first nine months of this year, it seized 23,263 such products, worth RM5.5 million.
To fight the problem, the ministry will soon amend the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulation 1984, to make it an offence to also possess such products.
Under the existing regulation, individuals found selling such drugs risked being fined up to RM25,000 or jailed for up to three years, or both companies faced a maximum RM50,000 fine or three years’ jail or both.