Promising authentication in seconds, InfraTrac’s patent-pending NIR spectroscopy can distinguish real from fake, supplier from supplier, even batch from batch.

In the face of today’s more sophisticated counterfeiting and diversion techniques, including illegitimate repackaging, tagging packages alone is not enough to protect pharmaceuticals. InfraTrac tags the substance itself, including pills, powders, liquids, and vaccines, with an excipient-based fingerprint. With the use of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, companies can determine within seconds whether a product is genuine or not. InfraTrac’s software can also tag and detect gray market, or “diverted,” products, such as Medicare drugs that end up in a retail pharmacy.

How does it work? Analyzing whether two substances match closely enough to be considered the same usually requires time, lab equipment and training. InfraTrac’s NIR spectroscopy is a fast, non-destructive technique accessible even to non-scientists that enables companies to use existing formulation as a tag. The sample (powder, pill or liquid) is prepared and tested in a machine that graphs its components’ reaction to light. A breadbox-sized machine is used in the lab, with a standard desktop computer as its interface. A handheld version is also available.

How effective is it? The technology, which can track materials accurately throughout the supply chain, can distinguish brands, dates of manufacture and batches, and can see through improper handling and adulterants. It’s fast - in as little as 0.1 second, a sample can be analyzed, compared to a database of stored information, and determined to be counterfeit if it does not match a known batch. And it’s inexpensive, easily fitting into a company’s manufacturing process.

Besides pharmaceuticals, InfraTrac’s solution can also tag paint (so car distributors can quickly determine which auto parts, for example, belong to them or to counterfeiters) and chemicals (so companies have solid proof if emissions are theirs or not).

The CAMO Software/InfraTrac partnership. Through a partnership with CAMO Software - a company that specializes in multivariate data analysis and workflow management for major pharmaceutical, chemical, consumer products and material companies – InfraTrac is poised to become a major provider of anti-counterfeiting solutions to the pharmaceutical industry.

At the 59th Pittsburgh Conference (PITTCON) on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Sharon Flank, InfraTrac’s CEO, said, “This partnership takes advantage of CAMO’s strengths in pharmaceutical process management in general and spectroscopy in particular,” said. CAMO’s experts will work with Quality Assurance teams to enable InfraTrac’s “lot number in the pill” fingerprinting.

Lars Österberg, CAMO's President and CEO, added, “InfraTrac offers the promise of bringing safety and security to the pharmaceutical supply chain by staying one step ahead of increasingly sophisticated counterfeiters and criminals. We’re very pleased to work with InfraTrac to bring this technology into the existing portfolio of anti-counterfeiting solutions that pharmaceutical companies use to combat the growing threat.”

With InfraTrac, it’s practically impossible for the counterfeiter o escape undetected. Because while many anti-counterfeit technologies merely track packages and their route throughout the supply chain, InfraTrac makes sure that what’s inside the packages is the genuine product.